Unforeseen and unnoticed
by Kegel
Summary: While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer, everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. SaraGreg
1. Get to know

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**Rating: **T (Just in case.)

**A/N: **Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading! Remaining mistakes are mine : )

* * *

**Unforeseen and unnoticed**

**Chapter 1: Get to know**

Standing in the evidence room of the crime lab, Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes of swing shift were going through files and examining photos and pieces of evidence of a shooting case. They had gone through everything they had from this case at least half a dozen times, but they were stuck.

Swing shift supervisor Catherine Willows entered the room and wanted to know how the case was going.

"We've reached dead ends everywhere," Nick stated, sighing.

"Well then, I have a new assignment for the both of you. Another shooting," Catherine said and handed Warrick a piece of paper who read it while Nick was repacking the evidence that was laying on the table.

Some minutes later, Warrick and Nick were already on their way to the crime scene.

When they arrived there they discerned that the killing had obviously happened in a crowded street, at least it was crowded now, despite the fact that the scene had been taped off and that several police men were trying to convince people to move on.

Warrick walked to the police-officer in charge, who filled him with the facts he knew. Looking at the crowd that stood, waited and watched around the scene, Warrick asked the other man, "There are lots of people here. Who called the police?"

The police-officer pointed to a nervous looking but animatedly speaking elderly woman, who stood some steps away from them and talked to another police man. "She said a guy draw a gun suddenly, shot the man who was walking in front of him and disappeared in the crowd."

Warrick nodded. "Any confirmation of that?"

The other man raised his eyebrows. "You know, if you ask ten witnesses, you'll get ten different stories."

Warrick nodded again. "We'll go for the evidence then."

This intention was temporarily prevented by the elderly woman who came over to Warrick and Nick who had just approached his colleague. She began to talk to them lively. "He just drew his gun… it was really sudden …he shot the man in the head … it seemed random … shocking … disappeared faster than you could realize…"

Nick nodded and smiled in a friendly manner and was relieved by the police man who talked to the woman and walked with her a few steps away listening to the story again.

Now Warrick and Nick approached the body finally. It was a middle aged man and he had been shot into the back of his head. The victim was lying on his abdomen and the both CSIs were able to see the entrance wound on the back of his head easily.

"Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Nick asked.

Warrick nodded. "Just like the case we left back at the lab."

"Victim shot into the back of the head on an open, lively street. Killer disappears in the crowd."

"And we have nothing," Warrick added.

"Maybe it's different this time," Nick said hopefully.

* * *

The young woman in front of Greg started to cry.

It was well into the night and Greg was attending an interrogation in a case he and Sara had worked on. He looked to Sara slightly uncomfortable. She gave him a reassuring look and he turned his head back to the woman who was sitting at the other side of the table.

"Then you took the gun and threw it into the garbage?"

The dark-blonde woman nodded, sobbing.

"Your prints were also on the lamp that had been standing on your father's desk…" Greg continued.

"I … threw it on the …floor."

"To make it look like there had been a fight?" Sara asked.

The other woman nodded, still crying.

"Your father committed suicide and you made it look like a homicide," Greg summed up.

Nobody said anything after that for a minute. The only sounds were the quiet sobs of the young woman opposite of Greg and Sara.

Finally the blonde spoke again, although it was only very quietly and slowly. "The shame…" she whispered and added rather reluctantly "… and the life insurance wouldn't pay, if it was suicide…"

* * *

Half an hour later Greg and Sara were in the break room of the lab, Greg being so nice to hand Sara a cup of his favourite coffee.

He let himself sink on the couch taking in the pleasant smell of his own cup of coffee and drinking a sib.

"I was quite unsure for a moment if I handled that right," he stated frankly.

Sara looked up from her cup, surprised. "You were?" she wondered.

"Yeah, I was getting unsure if I had interpreted the evidence in the right way …" Greg explained, watching the coffee slosh in his cup.

Sara frowned, "But, I had the same opinion. I was sure that we were right, that you were right."

Greg chuckled. "What would I do without you?"

There was silence. Sara took another gulp of her coffee and Greg finally cleared his throat. "And then she started to cry," he said, rubbing his forehead. "I just don't know if I can handle things like that."

Sara came over to him and sat next to him on the couch. "You're doing fine, Greg."

Greg smiled and drank another gulp of his coffee.

"I never got to know an unsure Greg-the-lab-rat," Sara said, smiling.

"Well, then I was unbeatably charming, giving-you-results-in-humanly-almost-not-possible-time-periods-Greg."

Sara smiled. "And now …"

"Now I'm doing-something-he-wanted-to-do-for-a-long-time-but-does-not-know-if-he's really-good-enough-to-do-it-Greg," he said very fast. He sighed and leaned back on the couch.

"You are really the last person who I expected to have a self-confidence problem," Sara said seriously. Greg said nothing to that, which was rare enough.

After a while of silent drinking, Sara asked, "Why did you tell me that?"

"I just wanted you to know," he answered, shrugging.

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want you to wonder..." Greg dried up as if he wanted to say more, but looked into his cup instead of continuing to speak.

"And…?" Sara insisted.

"And, well, we're friends, aren't we?" Greg looked at her, his face somewhere between a grin and an asking expression.

Sara looked at Greg for a moment. He could not interpret the expression on her face.

"Sure," she answered finally.

Greg took the last sip out of his cup and stood up. He put it into the sink, turned on the water and washed up the cup. Then he turned around, grinning mischievously. "And now you tell me something about you."

Sara looked suspiciously. "Why?"

"So we get to know each other."

Sara groaned. "Greg, we already know each other."

Greg was still grinning. "True," he said and after some seconds, added merrily, "I know something about you."

Sara raised her eyebrows. "So?"

She took the last sip out of her cup of coffee while Greg was coming over to her. "You…" he began, smiling, taking the empty cup out of her hands, "… like my coffee."

TBC


	2. Now it gets silent

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer, everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N: **Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading! Remaining mistakes are mine : )

Thank you for your reviews!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Now it gets silent**

Warrick saw Nick coming out of the ballistics lab and he quickened his pace to catch up with his team mate who was walking in the other direction.

"Hey," he called.

Nick stopped and turned around. Warrick came to a halt in front of him.

"We haven't found DNA traces of other people on the body."

Pointing in direction of the ballistic lab, Nick said, "But I've just learned that the victim has been killed with the same gun like the other victim."

Warrick nodded, taking in the not unexpected information. "Anything else?"

"The police has interviewed several people who eye-witnessed the killing. They asked for a description of the assailant. Unsurprisingly, the statements differed widely, but you can filter out some facts: male, white, between 25 and 35, average height. He wore a cap, so his hair wasn't visible," Nick explained earnestly.

"This description probably fits to thousands of men in this city," Warrick remarked calmly.

They both headed in the direction of the break room. On the way they met Catherine who looked slightly badgered.

"Sorry, guys, but it's time for a double."

On Warrick's and Nick's questioning expressions she continued, "Another shooting. Same order of events."

She handed Nick a piece of paper with the concrete dates and then hurried off to her office, while Nick and Warrick made their way out of the lab. When they were passing the break room they saw Greg hurrying into it, obviously a bit late to the pre-shift meeting of graveyard shift. The two swing shift CSIs caught a glimpse of Grissom, who gave Greg a sign to settle down, cutting off his excuses for being late.

When they approached the SUV, Nick glanced meaningful at Warrick, who returned the expression. They both hold out one hand, counted silently until three, only moving their lips without s sound. At three Nick hold out his flat hand while Warrick had his hand clenched to a fist.

Nick grinned, "I'll drive."

* * *

Greg switched on his flashlight. He lifted his hand in which he held the flashlight, waving the beam along the ground of the narrow alleyway until it met the wall at the far end. There the alley made a turn into the backyard of the currently uninhabited, nevertheless comfortable looking, house at the left side of the alley. Where the alley met the pavement, the all too well known yellow-black tape marked the crime scene.

Greg and Sara had just arrived there and while she was speaking to Brass, Greg waited and got a first impression of the scene.

"It's not pretty," Greg heard Brass just saying.

"We're used to that," was Sara's reply.

In this moment David, the coroner, was coming around the corner at the far end of the alley and walked into the shine of Greg's flashlight.

Sara saw him and she crouched under the tape to enter the crime scene. Greg followed her. The shine of his flashlight was growing with every step he made towards the wall, Sara and David casting dim shadows in it.

Sara reached the end of the alley and talked to the coroner while both were turning around the corner into the backyard.

Some seconds later Greg did the same and while he was approaching the coroner and Sara, who had come to a stop next to the dead body of a woman, Greg heard David saying, "She hasn't been killed here." He pointed at the body and continued, "She bled to death, but here is only a small amount of blood."

Sara nodded and Greg saw what the coroner meant. Next to the body were only small puddles of blood which definitely did not fit to bleeding to death and to the amount of injuries the woman had.

Greg let his flashlight wander from the body to the point where he stood and then away from him until the corner of the alley. What stroke him was that there were no blood drops to be seen at all.

"There's no blood," he announced, letting the light wander from him to the body.

Sara, who had been staring at the body of the woman, looked up. "What?"

"There are no blood drops that lead to the body along the whole way from the alley to the body," Greg stated.

Sara nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

She opened her kit, put on gloves and started to examine the body. Greg walked along the full length of the backyard. He did not find any blood. To avoid missing anything that could lead to the murderer he bagged every tiny piece, mostly garbage, he found.

Sara examined, seemingly mechanically, the body and its direct surrounding. She seemed very silent this night.

Greg returned to her and got his first right look at the dead woman. She had obviously been beaten badly and she had deep cuts all over her body.

Greg wondered how many of them had been made before death and how many posthumously. The coroner would tell them. Altogether, it was as ugly was Brass had hinted.

Greg swallowed and wondered if he ever would get used to it. Sara was obviously used to it. She was working without any sign of emotion, just concentrating on her work. Now she was bagging some stuff she had detected on the body.

When she had finished that, she packed her things, including her camera, and asked Greg if he was ready. After his positive answer she allowed the coroner to remove the body. Then she made her way back to their car silently, followed by Greg.

He sat down on the passenger's seat and looked at Sara who was just starting the engine. "Is everything okay?" he asked her, trying to hide the worry in his voice. It was her silentness and her behaving like automatically that worried him. He had seen this before and then Sara had not been okay.

But Sara, watching the traffic to find a gap, said only, "Sure."

Greg sighed silently. He did not want to press it. She knew that she could talk to him if she wanted.

* * *

Warrick leaned over the dead body of a young man who had been shot in the back of his head. He picked up a white fiber carefully, hoping against all odds that it was not only a simple everyday fiber that would give them no lead at all.

It was already well after midnight, Nick and Warrick being in their second shift. They were processing the scene of the third shooting in a row where obviously random people – so far men in all three cases – had been shot from behind.

What differentiated this case from the other two was that they had only one eye-witness this time who had confirmed the description of the assailant that they had received from the other cases.

Warrick bagged the fiber, finishing his examination of the body with this and allowing the coroner to remove the body.

Warrick got up and walked over to Nick who was just closing his kit. "Nothing really useful. Just like the other times."

"Only thing is he didn't murder in a crowd this time. Maybe he's becoming cautious," Nick shrugged.

Warrick nodded calmly. "It's crazy to shot somebody in a crowd."

"Shooting people is crazy in the first place. We don't know how this guy's brain works."

* * *

Sara closed her locker and leaned against it. Her forehead rested on the door of her locker. The metal felt cold on her skin. What felt warm were the tears that slid slowly down her cheeks.

She closed her eyes, hoping the tears would stop. What she felt next was the soft touch of a hand on her shoulder. She started and turned around abruptly.

Greg stood in front of her. Sara turned from him and looked at a spot on the floor. "What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to compose her voice.

"I work here," Greg answered quietly.

There was silence.

"What is it, Sara?" Greg asked softly, trying to catch her gaze, but she avoided his.

"What is what?" Sara opened her locker again and crammed in it. She did not even know what she was searching for, probably for nothing, but she did not want to face Greg.

"You know, if you want to talk, you can call me, or come along, or whatever you want."

Again nobody said anything. The only sound was Sara's cramming in her locker what finally stopped.

"We are friends, remember?"

Sara said nothing and did not turn around. She still looked into the depths of her locker. She did not turn around and she did not answer either, but a small smile had crept on her face. She heard Greg leave.

She covered her eyes with her hand and sighed. She slammed her locker close, picked up her jacket that was still lying on the bench, put it on and wrapped her arms around her upper body and left.

* * *

Sara closed the door of her apartment behind her and the silence of the room was filling in her like so often. She laid her purse on the small wardrobe next to the door.

Then she went into her kitchen and headed for the fridge. She opened it and what she saw was only what she had expected. Not much. Also like so often. She just did not care to buy lots of food regularly, only for herself.

She made herself a small meal from the little food that was available. She carried it to her small kitchen table and sat down. She picked a little in her meal, eating one or two bits.

Finally she sighed, stood up, emptied the rest, or, more precisely, almost all of her meal into the trash can and made a mental note to get at least a bit of food during the day.

After washing up, she let herself sink on her couch, again realizing the silence and furthermore, the twilight, as not much sunlight was coming into her apartment, although the sun had already gone up one or two hours ago.

Sara leaned back and placed her hands on her forehead. Her thoughts went to the case of the night again and she sighed. It would probably haunt her until the merciful work flow of human brain allowed her to slowly forget. It generally did.

When her gaze fell on her cell phone, which she had laid onto the tiny table next to the couch, she also remembered Greg's offer.

She hesitated to accept it. For starters she did not know how serious he had been with it. People often offered easily to come along and reacted surprised when you really did so. At least Sara had heard that. Not to forget her feeling of awkwardness considering crying herself out in front of Greg, of all people.

Although, it also came to her mind that she probably was not fair to him concerning that.

She turned around and laid herself flat on the couch, her arms stretched out over her head. She shut her eyes and just when she closed them she heard her phone ringing.

She jumped up and rushed to pick it up. She said hello, but disappointment washed over her when she learned that somebody had misdialed.

She slammed the phone down and turned to return to the couch, but then she muttered, "Damn it."

She picked up the phone again and dialed Greg's number.

TBC


	3. Get along

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N: **Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading! Remaining mistakes are mine :)

Thank you for your reviews!

**

* * *

Chapter 3 – Get along**

Sara and Greg talked, just talked.

Sara had thought before that talking would only bring the issues in her head to the front of her mind, and that they would torture her afterwards even more, but she felt that it did her good. It felt good to have these things out of the system.

She had also been slightly surprised that Greg had meant his offer seriously. She had called him and he had asked her if he should come over to her, or if she would like to come over to him. She had picked the second possibility, somehow not ready to let him, Greg, into her apartment, her personal space.

So she drove to his place, the imagination of Greg hastily tidying up his apartment slightly lightening up her mood, although she did not know if his apartment really resembled the messiness of his hair.

However, when she rang at his door, he opened it smiling. He ran his hand quickly through his hair nervously and gave her a sign to come in.

When she had sat down in his living room, he disappeared into the kitchen, but returned only some seconds later with two hot cups of coffee that he had obviously prepared before she arrived.

He handed her one of the cups and sat down comfortably. "So…you wanted to talk."

Sara took a sip from her cup. "Well, I hope I didn't wake you, did I?" she began.

Greg grinned in a way only he did. "Who needs sleep?"

And then she began to talk, slowly, cautiously, at first. But as the last bit of awkwardness disappeared, Sara took the risk – as it felt to her – and told him what haunted her and Greg listened.

* * *

Catherine entered the break room to find Warrick was sitting comfortably on the couch while Nick was emptying a cup of coffee into the sink with a disgusted expression. He looked up, saw her, and pleaded, "Please, can you make a request to Ecklie to transfer Greggo to our shift? We're in real need for his coffee."

Ignoring his question, Catherine greeted both of them shortly. "Talking of Ecklie, he has made an order that I take over the lead of the shooting cases," she started and continued with a soothing voice after seeing Warrick's and Nick's disappointed expressions, "Sorry, guys. I know it is, it _was_, your case, but," she sighed, "you know Ecklie. 'People are scared', 'Mass-murder', 'High-profile case', you know how it works." The both men nodded reluctantly.

"So, where do we stand?" Catherine wanted to know, returning to business.

Warrick stood up, went to the table, and picked up three files that had been lying piled up on the table. He opened all three of them and laid them next to each other on the table so that the photos of three men could be seen. The photos had obviously been taken by the police.

"We just got those files," Warrick explained, pointing to the table. "They're the files of the three victims of the shootings."

Catherine strode slowly to the table, picked up the files one after the other, and browsed in them. "They all have criminal records." She stated the obvious.

Nick nodded. "And that's the only link we have between the victims so far, apart from the face that they're male."

Warrick continued, "All three have been shot with the same weapon. We found no foreign DNA, which, of course, is no surprise. You usually try not to leave your DNA for someone to find when you shoot somebody."

"Warrick found a fiber on the clothes of the third victim, but it was a simple cotton fiber, nothing that could give us a clue," Nick added.

Catherine sat down on the couch. "What about the weapon?"

"A very common one, there are thousands of them alone in this city," Nick answered.

"If ballistics hadn't confirmed that the third victim has been killed with the same gun like the first two, I would have guessed that it wasn't the same killer," Warrick said.

"Why?" Catherine inquired.

Warrick showed her a photo of the scene. "This shooting happened differently. The first two victims had been shot in the back of their heads, meaning the killer had been standing directly behind them, and it happened in a crowd of people. The third victim had been shot from a farther distance, and in a less frequented street, though there was still an eye-witness."

At this moment, Catherine's cell phone rang. She answered it and listened to the voice on the other side of the line. Warrick and Nick watched curiously.

"We're on our way," Catherine announced and shut her cell phone. She looked at her co-workers. "This guy has just given us another opportunity to catch him. There was another killing."

* * *

Greg walked down the hallway in the crime lab, looking for Sara. It was still some time until the beginning of his shift, but he had come in early in hopes to meet Sara, who was well known to arrive extra early, before their shift started. He hoped to catch her because he might not have an opportunity to talk to her once they got started. They both would work on the murder of the woman they had gotten the day before, unless a new urgent case came in, but that would not be the perfect time for talking either.

He had been surprised – positively – that Sara had called him. And he had been relieved that she had decided to open up a little to him. They had talked about the latest case and about other ones and about the impressions that it left in both their minds. Greg had somehow been relieved that he was not the only one who could not go completely emotionless about the work.

Altogether, they had spent a comfortable day at Greg's place and Sara had went home in the late afternoon thanking Greg for the nice day, although seeming rather unsure what else to say.

With all these thoughts going around in his mind, Greg looked into the locker room and then into the break room, but he still didn't find Sara.

So he finally settled down in the break room as it was still half an hour to go until his shift. The lab seemed quite quiet that night.

After some minutes sitting there on his own, Greg got bored and decided to brew some coffee, as he knew that Sara liked it very much. When he thought of that he had to grin. So he was just doing it to please her? He poured some water into the coffee-maker, chuckling to himself.

In this moment a familiar voice caught his attention. "I arrive just at the right moment," Nick said, laughing. "Could you share some of your valuable coffee? I have a serious withdrawal."

Greg laughed. When the coffee was ready he handed Nick generously a cup of it. He took a cup himself and sat down on the couch.

"How was your day?" Nick asked, drinking a large gulp contentedly.

Greg had a hard time to avoid spilling his coffee. "Fine," he answered monosyllable.

"Since when are you so short spoken?" Nick asked chuckling.

Taking it as a rhetorical question, Greg changed the topic. "How was your shift?"

Nick frowned. "Don't know if you've heard, but we have a serial killing going on. Some mad guy is shooting people all over Vegas."

They talked for some minutes until Nick had finished his coffee and decided to leave. "I have been pulling doubles the last days and I have to catch up some sleep," he stated, sighing.

"Then you shouldn't have drunk coffee, you know," Greg said, laughing.

Nick got up from the couch. "Couldn't miss the opportunity to get some of yours." He walked towards the door of the break room waving Greg goodbye.

Shortly after Nick had left, Greg walked to the locker room, continuing his search for Sara.

She was standing in front of her locker, similar to the day before.

"Hey," Greg called softly. "Where have you been?"

Sara looked to him, frowning. "None of your business," she said coldly and Greg wondered what had happened in the few hours since they had parted. He tried to let this wondering not reflect on his face and pretended to not have heard the coldness in Sara's voice. She just sometimes acted this way and he did not want to let himself be scared away by that.

"Want some nice, hot coffee?" he tried to sound cheerful.

Sara closed her locker and walked by him. "Later maybe. Shift's gonna start now; Grissom's waiting."

She walked out of the room and made her way to the pre-shift meeting, Greg hurrying after her. She regretted having snapped at him some moments earlier, but she had just been caught off guard by his question and had brought up her almost automatic snappish answer.

She had begun to wonder if it had been a mistake to talk to Greg. She tried to get this thought out of her head and kept telling herself that it was nonsense and that she should stop questioning every decision, every move she made into the direction of another person.

Grissom was already waiting for them. Sara sat down and Greg seemed as if he wanted to sit down next to her, but then he reconsidered and remained staying next to the door. Sofia came in last and closed the door behind her.

Like Greg had expected Grissom simply told him and Sara to continue to work on the murder of the woman after Sara had shortly summarized what they knew until then. Grissom and Sofia went out to another homicide and Sara and Greg set to work.

* * *

After a thorough examination of the pictures they had taken on the scene and of several things they had found there, Greg made his way to the DNA lab, while Sara went to visit Hodges in the trace lab.

Like Greg had expected – he realized that his expectations became reality quite often that night – Sara and he had not talked about anything else than the case. Not that Greg was opposed to that. He wholeheartedly wanted to solve this as fast as possible, but Sara's behaviour at the beginning of their shift did not want to get out of his head.

He entered the DNA lab and Mia looked up from the piece of paper she had been reading.

"Hey," she greeted him.

"Do you have something for me?" Greg asked.

"There were several samples of foreign DNA on your DB and all from the same person, male. But that's all I can tell you. He isn't in CODIS," Mia replied, indicating to the paper she held. Greg took it and looked shortly at it.

* * *

At the same time Sara was standing in the trace lab. "Cotton?" she asked.

Hodges nodded. "Cotton. Used to make clothes, blankets …"

"Indeed?" Sara cut him off sarcastically.

"Simple cotton," she muttered turning to leave the room. "Damn."

"This is no way talking around her, Ms. Sidle," Hodges called after her.

Sara decided to go without casting him a fierce glance and walked back to the room where she and Greg had spread the evidence, hoping he had more luck in DNA.

* * *

In the pre-shift meeting of swing shift on the next day, Catherine surprised her co-workers right at the beginning. "It isn't a guy, who killed the fourth victim," she stated.

Nick looked puzzled.

"It's a woman."

She let this fact sink in, before she continued, "The description we got from one of the witnesses wasn't really useful, only thing she said was that it was a guy of average height and that she couldn't see his face, because of the darkness. But we have another statement and the man is sure that it was a woman. He said it was easy to see, just like the killer moved."

"But ballistics confirmed again, that it was the same weapon."

"A whole crowd of witnesses stated that it was a guy who killed the first victims."

Warrick hold up his hand, three fingers outstretched. "Three possibilities," he said, "first: a whole crowd of people were wrong, second the witness of the latest killing is wrong, third: there are two killers using the same weapon."

TBC


	4. Cooperate

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N: **Well, the next chapters will probably come out slowly as I'm currently doing an internship full time, so I don't have too much time to write, but the next chapter is almost ready (I hope this doesn't sound like a threat -).

Thanks again to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading. Remaining mistakes are mine, as usual. : )

And now I'll be at least so nice to thank all who reviewed: thanks to _VeganCSI, Crookedpen, SpeedRacer15, ObessedTWFan, missusmesser, loose-canon-with-a-gun, fartoperfection_and_ Tripp3235_!

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Co-operate**

Warrick flung the crumpled piece of paper into the trash can, which was standing in the break room, and cursed quietly.

Shortly after their pre-shift meeting, when Catherine had told him and Nick that the killer was probably a woman, or more exactly, that probably _one _of the killers was a woman, they had gotten a call to another crime scene: another shooting, another victim.

He, Catherine, and Nick had examined the crime scene, the case being their top priority now. While they were working there, Catherine had gotten another call about another homicide. She had sent Nick to work on that while she and Warrick finished the scene.

Warrick let himself sink on the couch in the break room. Nick had just returned from his crime scene and reported to Catherine that it was very likely another case in their series of killings.

Sitting down next to Warrick, Nick said, "It's the same like the last cases." Catherine nodded. "Only the first two cases don't really fit."

Warrick frowned. "But Ballistics confirmed that the same weapon was used in all the cases."

"This time the same gun can't have been used," Nick stated. "The shootings happened about the same time, but far away from each other."

* * *

When he entered the lab, Greg looked at his watch and saw that he had still more than two hours time until his shift started.

He had decided to come in extra early to help Sara, who had hinted that she would start early. She hoped to finally find a lead in their homicide, always fearing that she would be ordered to work on a new, urgent case, which might have a higher priority, at least a higher priority for the lab. Sara knew that she would never understand why obviously some cases, some victims, were preferred before others.

She had hinted it in the morning when she and Greg had grabbed breakfast together. Greg smiled at the memory.

_At the end of their shift, when he had been about to leave, Sara had caught him in the locker room. "Look," she had started, "about tonight…"_

_Greg had looked at her questioningly._

"…_I'm sorry I snapped at you …," Sara had continued, "it was out of line… I –"_

_Greg had cut her off softly. "It's okay." _

_But Sara had not finished there. _

"_You want to grab breakfast?" she had asked quickly. _

_Greg had opened his mouth, but had not said anything. He had not exactly gotten the opportunity to, as Sara had already continued, "Well, I ate at your place yesterday, so … I thought I could buy this time and -"_

"_Yeah, sure," Greg had accepted gladly. _

* * *

Warrick was on his way to the locker room, when he saw Greg in the hallway. "Hey," he called him, "it's still two hours to go until your shift. You're early."

Greg nodded. "Yeah, hot case." He looked around, frowning. "Have you seen Sara?" he wanted to know.

Warrick frowned, too. "Isn't she with you? You're both working this case, aren't you?"

Greg nodded again.

"I saw her shortly before I went with Nick and Catherine to a scene. She was heading to the exit, I called after her, but she didn't hear me, obviously. She left the building and I haven't seen her since," Warrick told Greg, who seemed rather worried.

Warrick looked at his watch. "It was about four hours ago."

Greg took out his cell phone and dialed Sara's number. He listened to the ringing on the other side of the line, pacing some steps up and down in the hallway, Warrick standing next to him, looking concerned.

"Come on, Sar, pick up," Greg muttered. He continued to pace up and down, until he abruptly stopped, when he heard that somebody picked up.

"Sidle."

Greg breathed a sign of relief. "Sara."

"What's up, Greg?" Sara asked calmly.

"Where are you?"

"Uh, it's still time until shift." Sara evaded the question.

"But you're working, aren't you? Where are you?" Greg repeated his query.

Sara hesitated. Greg could hear cars rushing by in the distance.

"I'm back at the scene," Sara started quietly, "I wanted to use the daylight to look for something we might have missed, I've examined every inch of this backyard several times, but –".

She was interrupted by Greg. "I'll come," he said, temporarily refraining from verbalizing any reproaches to Sara for going back to the scene alone.

He turned to go to the locker room to grab his things, when Warrick made him aware of his presence by calling after him. "Where is she?" he wanted to know.

"She's gone back to the scene, alone," Greg stated and looked at Warrick.

"Working overtime again?" Warrick said, although he knew as well as Greg that he wanted to say something else, that he was thinking of something else.

_

* * *

They had seated in a cozy little café not far from the lab._

_Sara had bought pancakes and two cups of coffee and had carried it to their table. "Just don't get used to it, Sanders," she had said, winking._

"_Used to what?"_

"_Used to me bringing you breakfast."_

"_No problem. I can bring it in future, if that is what you want," Greg had returned, grinning. _

_They had eaten in silence for some minutes, until Greg had broken the quietness by talking about this and that. While he had been talking Sara's expression had changed to a thoughtful one and her eyes seemed absent. Greg had stopped talking in mid-sentence but Sara had not seemed to notice it._

_Greg had lowered his head, trying to catch her gaze. "Hey, Sara," he had called, "what are you thinking about?"_

_Sara had started a little, returning to present place and time. _

"_Hey, where have you been?" Greg had asked lightly. "You've been thinking about the case?"_

_Sara nodded. "There has to be something," she had declared in a serious voice. "There have to be at least traces of how she has been brought there," she had said, pondering, referring to the victim that had been found in the alley. _

"_I don't want it to get a cold case."_

"_None of us does," Greg had stated earnestly. _

* * *

When Greg arrived at the scene, the last light of the day had disappeared. It got never really dark in Las Vegas because of all the lights and the street in which Greg had parked the SUV was well lighted, too, but he could not see anything in the alley that let to the crime scene that they had worked on two nights ago.

So he switched on his flashlight and walked along the alleyway and when he was several paces in it, he thought he had seen the shining of another flashlight.

"Sara," he called loudly. Shortly before the end of the alley he stopped and waited. Some seconds later, Sara came around the corner and held her flashlight in his direction, so that he shut his eyes because of the blinding light.

"Greg," said Sara shortly and turned around to return into the backyard again.

Greg approached her and touched her shoulder. "You shouldn't have come here alone, Sara."

Sara walked away from him, so that his hand dropped from her shoulder. Without turning around or looking at him, she mumbled, "You don't have to babysit me, Greg."

"What I don't have to do is tell you how dangerous it is," Greg answered calmly and followed her into the backyard. "Did you even tell Grissom where you were going?" he asked.

"I don't have to tell him, it's my free time, after all." Sara continued to examine the bottom with her flashlight.

Greg sighed. He knew it was pointless to discuss with Sara when she was in a mood like this. Making a last try, he said, "He still wouldn't like it."

Sara turned around abruptly and starred at him. "You won't tell him, will you?" she asked and Greg wondered if it was resignation that he heard in her voice.

Greg shook his head. "I won't."

Approaching her once again, grabbing her left hand – her right arm that held the flashlight hand sunken down and the light was focused on only a single spot on the ground – he said, "But please, don't do these pointless, dangerous actions again. You know very well, that we could've come together bringing a cop with us."

"What I do in my free time-", Sara argued, but she stopped when she saw Greg's expression of concern in the dim light of their flash lights, an expression that told her that he meant it seriously and that he was really worried.

She smiled briefly and squeezed his hand lightly, and then she turned around again and started to examine the walls of the house that they were standing behind by letting the light of her flashlight wander along the walls.

"Do you think that there is a point in doing this?" Greg asked, but began to do the same like Sara.

"There has to be something," she answered. Suddenly she stopped her flashlight at a spot on the wall in front of them where there was a dark substance. Sara starred at the spot that was about three feet above her head.

Then she walked to her kit, which stood some paces next to her, and opened it. She put on gloves and brought out something that Greg recognized as luminol.

Sara walked back to the wall, pointed her light again on the spot and looked up. Then she turned to Greg and asked, "Would you help me, please?"

Greg starred for a moment, wondering what she was talking about. Then she pointed to the spot above and he understood.

He folded his hands and held them in such a way that Sara could step onto them. She put one of her feet carefully onto his hands and lifted herself upwards, using his hands as a ladder. She balanced and leaned against the wall slightly with one hand. Now her head was only a little length under the spot with the dark substance.

Sara sprayed the spot with luminal. Greg could see the glazing on the wall.

"It's blood," Sara confirmed. "Let me down, please."

She stepped back onto the ground and Greg grabbed her lightly to help her keeping the balance, finally letting reluctantly go of her.

Sara walked once again to her kit. When she returned, she smiled at Greg. "Another go?" she asked, pointing on the wall. "I want to take a DNA sample."

Greg nodded, grinning. "Sure."

TBC


	5. Move closer

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews!

_remoob1513: _

Yeah, the noticing is coming quite slowly, actually I didn't want to make it too obvious (ah, I don't have a nice saying in English for what I mean, but I'd say something about "waving with the whole fence" in my language).

_obsessedTWfan_:

I'm nice and a little bit already comes in this chapter. Actually I decided to change the genre from Drama/Angst to Humor/Angst (weird combo, uh?), as it's playing out more in this direction.

But angst is coming ahead in the next chapter, muhaha (lol, I have this from _chrissy0_. I recommend her Sandle stories "A Balancing Act" and "When the Rain Comes").

And thanks again to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading and your help!

**

* * *

Chapter 5 – Move closer**

It was about ten hours later; already well into the morning, when Greg came up to Sara who waited outside of the DNA lab.

"It's pointless, you know," he stated, earning a not too friendly glance. "As former lab tech I can tell you that it's not possible to do a DNA comparison in a couple of hours."

Sara bit on her lip. "I know."

"Then why are you waiting here? Go home and sleep," Greg said seriously, "you look tired, exhausted actually."

Sara grimaced. "Thanks, Greg, that's what a woman wants to hear," she said ironically. "And," she added, "I am not tired."

Greg laughed and Sara looked at the floor and smiled widely.

"Did I miss something?" they heard Grissom's voice behind them.

Sara turned around, straightening her expression. "No, I'm just waiting for DNA results."

At this moment Mia came out of the DNA lab. "Get a life. The results won't be ready until tonight," she declared, said goodbye to her co-workers, and walked away.

Sara sighed resigned. "Okay, okay, I'm already leaving." She walked past Grissom and then she turned around again, looking at Grissom and Greg. "Happy?"

Greg shrugged and Sara left.

Grissom sent a questioning look at Greg, who just shrugged again and went away.

* * *

When he entered the locker room to get his things, Sara was still there.

"Hey, you're up for breakfast?" she asked lightly.

Greg was up for it, of course, but as he did not want to appear to enthusiastic, he just answered, "Uh… if you'd like to…"

Sara shut her locker a little too hard and Greg winced.

"We don't have to, you know," she said sharply, hurrying out of the room without another word. Greg ran after her and when he caught up to her he grabbed her arm from behind. "Wait, I didn't mean - ."

Sara turned around quickly, her expression hardened, "Don't touch - ," she hissed, but stopped in mid sentence as Greg had already drawn back.

Sara frowned and Greg knew that she was considering whether to yell or laugh at him.

"Let's have breakfast, okay?" Greg suggested, unsure, nevertheless smiling.

Now Sara was laughing. Greg wondered what she found so funny, but as he loved her laugh, and, as he thought that she did not laugh enough at all, he did not ask, but just grinned.

"Yeah," Sara finally agreed, "Get your things and we'll meet outside."

Greg walked back to the locker room, looking forward optimistically to their breakfast together. He grabbed his things and then hurried to sign out to not keep Sara waiting too long.

But as he stepped outside in the twilight as the sun was just rising on a cloudy sky, he could not see Sara anywhere. He stopped and looked around, confused. He wondered if she had changed her mind about having breakfast together, but he could not think of anything that might have caused her to do so.

Then he saw a glimpse of her brown hair behind a big car that was standing a little distance down the street. He walked over in her direction. "You're too tall to hide from me," he called teasingly.

Sara came around the car, glancing shortly back into the direction of the lab. "I didn't hide from you," she said, "I hid from Hodges."

Greg grinned widely, apparently enjoying himself.

"Don't laugh," Sara said in a threatening voice, but smiling, "this little sticking-his-nose-in-other-people-business just came out and I wasn't in the mood for questions 'Who are you waiting for?' and stuff."

Greg was laughing and Sara pulled him impatiently back into the direction of the lab. When they reached her car, Greg opened his mouth as if to say something, but Sara cut him off immediately. "Don't get even started. It's my car."

* * *

About two hours later Sara was parking her car near to Greg's apartment. Greg got out, but stuck his head through the door on the passenger's side again. "You wanna come up?" he asked cautiously. "I could make some lunch."

Sara shook her head, smiling. "Greg, first: we just had breakfast, second: We both need some sleep, I think."

Setting on a serious expression, Greg teased, "I thought you weren't tired."

Sara was looking for a moment as if she was searching for something she could throw at him, but then she got out of the car and slammed the door shut. Greg did the same on the other side of the car and walked around it towards Sara.

They went into his apartment and seated down comfortably in the living room. They chatted and Greg enjoyed the fact that he could make Sara laugh without the necessity of exploding toilets.

While at the beginning she had sat down on the couch, Sara was now more and more lying down on her side, yawning heavily.

Greg went into the kitchen to prepare some lunch, but when he came back to the living room, he found Sara sleeping soundly on the couch. He walked into his bedroom and got a blanket and covered her quietly. He decided to take a nap himself, walked back into the bed room and made himself comfortable on his bed.

It was a slam followed by loud cursing that woke him up. He opened his eyes and the cursing stopped. Greg wondered if he had dreamt the sounds, but then he heard a groan coming out of the living room.

He jumped out of the bed, still wearing the clothes he had worn in the morning, and hurried into the other room.

Sara was sitting on the couch, examining her left foot.

"What happened?" Greg asked worried, approaching her and looking at her foot.

Sara looked up at him annoyed. "I collided with your table." She pointed at the small table that was standing only few inches away from the couch.

The emphasis that she made on "your" made Greg worry she would blame him, but Sara continued, "I'm not used to a table standing next to my bed."

Greg smiled weakly. "Well, it's not exactly your bed," he said, indicating the couch, "but we can change that."

Sara sent him a dark look, "Sure, Sanders." She got up and walked slightly humbling to the wardrobe on the other side of the room where she had laid down her purse.

"Is your foot okay?" Greg asked concerned, but Sara only mumbled "Yeah."

She crammed in her purse and walked towards the entrance door.

"Where are you going?" Greg had followed her to the door.

Sara turned around. "Home," she stated rather sharply. But then her expression softened. "Greg, I'm really thankful for everything, but I have to go home. I have to change at least my clothes before work tonight."

Greg shrugged. "I thought we could grab lunch later and then heading to the lab. By the way: my car is still there."

Sara bit on her lip. "Greg, I'm going to stink...," she argued.

Greg grinned from one ear to the other. "I don't mind, you know."

Sara punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"I'll go home now," she said decisively. "No discussions," she added sharply, when Greg wanted to argue again. "I'll pick you up in two hours."

* * *

It was about half an hour before midnight when Sara parked her car near to the lab, but not too near, at least not directly in front of the entrance.

"Get out," she said to Greg, "we'll meet at the pre-shift meeting."

Greg got out of the car, obviously enjoying himself. He stuck his head again through the door on the passenger's side and asked grinning, "Why are we doing this again?"

"I don't want any gossip going around in the lab," Sara stated sharply and waved him to go.

Greg shut the door of the car and walked into the direction of the lab, shortly looking back at Sara, grinning. Sara laid her head on the steering wheel, sighing resigned.

Greg entered the lab and headed towards the locker room, meeting Nick on the way.

"Hey, you're grinning so widely. Something good happened?" the Texan asked him.

Greg had not realized that he still wore the expression and only managed to get out, "Uh, yeah."

Nick patted him on the shoulder. "Good for you," he said and added seriously, "We're not so lucky. There were two other shootings today. I do not really count anymore, how many it were until now. And we're not a single step further." He sighed.

At this moment Sara was coming along the hallway, greeting them both only shortly and glancing at Greg meaningful before she passed the both men.

"What's up with her?" Nick asked in a slightly worried voice.

Greg shrugged.

Nick looked at him intensively. "Hey, if you're as lucky with the girls as I can judge from your good mood today, you can also look after Sara a little. Okay? Do it for me."

Greg nodded. "Sure."

* * *

Sara was just walking past Catherine's office when the owner of it called her. "Hey, Sara, would you mind coming in for a moment?"

Sara wondered what Catherine wanted from her, but stepped into the office.

"I tried to call you several times today. Weren't you at home?"

Sara hesitated. "I was out," she said finally.

Catherine lifted her eyebrows. "You were out?"

Sara frowned. "You're not the only one who…," she began, but the she stopped, deciding it was pointless and childish.

"Okay, why did you want to call me?" she asked soothingly.

"I just wanted to know something about the Mitchell case you had two months ago."

Sara nodded. "Shoot."

* * *

Some minutes later Sara closed the door behind her, Grissom, Sofia and Greg already waiting for her. Without much prologue, Grissom started the pre-shift meeting.

"Sara, you'll work a hit-and-run that just came in," he said, looking at her and handing her a piece of paper.

Sara did not take it. "Gil, we have a lead in the case -," she began, but Grissom said calmly, "Sara, this case won't run away, while we can't close the street where the hit-and-run happened for the whole night."

"But, you know that every minute can count, if –," Sara made another try.

Grissom shook his head. "We had this discussion often enough."

"Can't Sofia-"

"Sofia and Greg will work a double homicide," Grissom said decisively and handed Sofia another piece of paper.

Sara ripped the piece of paper, which Grissom had tried to give her some moments earlier, out of his hands and left the room quickly without another word.

She hurried along the hallway, knowing that she had behaved unreasonable, but she badly wanted to solve the case with the victim that was found in the alley way. She told herself to act professional, even if it was not easy.

Sara drove to the scene of the hit-and-run and an officer filled her in. She worked the scene quickly, but careful, and talked finally to the coroner, who had taken care of the body of a young boy. She sighed. There were too many victims, their work never ended.

* * *

When she had finished, she returned to the lab, dropped the evidence bags she had filled on the scene and headed then to the DNA lab where Mia was already waiting for her.

"I expected you earlier," the lab tech greeted her.

"It wasn't my idea," Sara said simply.

Mia went to business. "The DNA you brought yesterday was a match to the victim," she stated, handing Sara a paper.

Sara took it, looked over it briefly and turned to go, but turned around again shortly, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Mia replied politely.

* * *

Sara searched for Greg shortly, but as he was probably still out with Sofia on their crime scene, she got the case file of the alley way case and sat down in a silent room of the lab, spreading the photos, which had been taken of the scene, on the table.

She looked at a picture that she had taken the last night. It showed the blood on the wall. How had it gotten there? It was in a height of about nine feet. As the victim had not been killed on the scene the blood could not be splatters from the killing itself. Then how in any way had it gotten there?

Sara looked at all the items she had gathered from the scene and at the photos again, and an idea dawned upon her.

TBC


	6. Think of me

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the delay.**

Thanks to _remoob1513 _and _obsessedTWfan_ for their reviews! No thanks to _lozaz_ because of the lack of constructive criticism ;) And thanks again to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading.

****

**

* * *

Chapter 6 –Think of me**

When Greg and Sofia returned from the scene of the double homicide they had worked on, the time of their normal shift was almost over. The scene had been a chaos and Greg and Sofia had needed lots of time only to get an overview, not to speak of examining everything. So Greg was pretty exhausted when he and the blonde woman entered the lab.

Sara was still sitting on a table, several photos spread out in front of her, when Greg came into the room. Sara could hear Sofia's voice coming from outside.

"I'll start processing, Greg. Can you give me a hand later?" Sofia asked mildly.

Greg turned around, looking through the door, and nodded. "Yeah." Then he closed the door behind him and approached Sara. He sat down next to her and asked, "Have you come any further?"

Sara looked up from the pictures. "From upwards."

Greg frowned. "What?"

Sara turned to him finally. "The blood on the wall… she came from upwards…that's the way she was brought there…I talked to Doc Robbins and he confirmed that it's possible…"

"Wait, wait," Greg pleaded, holding up his hands, "Not everybody can think in your speed." He leaned over the table and looked at the photos that had the date of the previous night. He took one of them and showed it to Sara. "The blood you found on the wall," he started, indicating the picture.

"It was a match to the victim," Sara said, as it came to her mind that Greg had not known about the results from DNA yet.

Greg nodded. "And you think you know how it got there?"

Sara walked to the table rather impatiently. "It came from upwards," she stated. "Either only some blood or, what I think is very probable, the whole body came from upwards."

"Upwards?"

Sara sighed. "Greg, please don't play dumb. From the second or third floor of course, out of a window."

"You think she was thrown out of a window of the house?"

Sara shook her head. "No, not thrown. She had no injuries that were caused by a long drop down."

"So?" Greg stood there, hands in the pockets of his trousers.

"Let's pay a visit to the house."

"Not alone."

"You afraid?" Sara asked jokingly.

It was a moment that proved Sara again that Greg could do the fierce glances she usually reserved for him, too.

"Sara, we'll go to Brass. Now."

Sara chuckled inwardly. "Actually," she said, striding over to him, "I'm in charge of you."

Greg looked beaten. "Please."

Sara laughed. "Of course, we'll do. What do you think? I know the rules." She leaned closer to him.

"With you I never know," Greg admitted.

Sara grabbed his left arm and pulled him out of the room, laughing.

* * *

They had not even gotten so far as to enter the house.

As they had known before, it was currently uninhabited. They still got no chance to enter it as the owner was living somewhere at the east coast and let a realtor search for a purchaser for the house.

The realtor had simply refused in the name of his consignor to let them enter or even investigate the house without a warrant. So they would have to wait until Brass had gotten one.

Sara looked over to Greg who was sitting on the couch in the break room, apparently tired. It was already well into the morning. It had been a long night for both of them.

Greg had not only worked on the case he had with Sara, but he had also helped Sofia, when it had been clear that they would not go to examine the house during this night, or more precisely during this morning, as it had already been about 7 am then.

Sara stood in front of the fridge and took out a bite of food she had brought with her to work.

Greg looked as if he was short before falling asleep. Sara thought that it would be a better idea for him to go home, but Greg had insisted to wait if they got a warrant quickly, otherwise they would have to wait another day.

Sara was also pretty tired, although she would never admit it. The imagination of lying comfortably on the couch seemed quite appealing, even more so the idea of huddling up to Greg.

Sara closed her eyes and shook her head. What was she thinking?

Greg looked at her with tired eyes. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

Greg nodded simply.

She walked over to the couch and sat down, but making sure to sit at the other end of it, not wanting to be tempted to put her imagination into practice. She leaned back and closed her eyes.

She felt herself slowly drifting away, subconsciously knowing that it was not a good idea to fall asleep in the break room.

She was startled out of her dozing by Greg's voice. "In two days we both have a night off. Have you already planned something?"

Sara left her eyes closed, enjoying the calming feeling it gave her. "Greg, we're no...," she started, but did not finish the sentence.

She felt Greg sitting up abruptly - he obviously had also been sitting leaned back on the couch- when the couch wavered slightly. "What aren't we?" Greg wanted to know.

Sara opened her eyes and turned into his direction, her head still resting on the backrest of the couch.

Greg had come pretty close to her.

Sara sat there, silent, watching Greg move to make himself more comfortable on the couch. They both were now sitting facing each other, their heads resting, tired as they were, on the backrest.

Sara thought again how good it would feel to cuddle up to Greg, falling asleep while resting in is arms. She almost thought she could feel his warmth, although he was still sitting several feet away from her.

Greg shifted shortly forwards, but draw back immediately and Sara wondered what kind of action that had been. Had he wanted to come closer to her, but had decided against it then? Or had he just moved to sit more comfortable?

She told herself to stop thinking about pointless questions like that, to stop giving too many thoughts to it. She still had not answered Greg's question, but he apparently did not mind.

She closed her eyes again, but after some seconds she felt the presence of Greg very near to her. She opened her eyes again and saw Greg, whose head was only some inches away from her now.

She felt the urge to kiss him, but was afraid of the consequences of an action like that. She wondered if Greg was so near to her because he wanted it as well.

She thought about what would happen to their relationship if she would just give in and regret it later, causing enduring awkwardness between the both of them.

She sighed silently, shutting her eyes again. What was she waiting for? She waited for Greg to make the step. She was there, directly in front of him, only a few inches away. He could kiss her and she would not slap him if he did so.

She waited there, her eyes shut, feeling Greg next to her.

Just then her cell phone began to ring obnoxiously loud, at least, that was what it felt to her.

She sighed, opened her eyes and answered the call. "Sidle." She listened to the voice on the other side of the line.

"Do you already have a warrant?" Sara asked, causing Greg to look up interested, as he guessed it was Brass to whom she was talking.

After some seconds, Sara said, "Yeah, I'll come."

She finished the call and turned to Greg, who seemed ready to stand up.

"You don't have to get up, Greg. It's not our case. It's the hit-and-run I'm working on. They got the driver and the car. I'll go to get the evidence from the car," Sara explained.

"I'll keep waiting," Greg said and added after some seconds, "for the warrant." He winked to Sara, who decided to leave.

"Bye, Greg," she said, smiling slightly, and walked out of the room. Greg watched her leave and then leaned back again on the couch, waiting and wondering.

* * *

Greg was still sitting on the couch, when Sara returned. She walked into the room and opened the fridge. She took out a bottle of water and drank several gulps. Then she put it back into the fridge, made her way over to the couch and sat down next to Greg.

"So, how's it going?" he asked.

"Fine. We got the guy," Sara answered and leaned back, smiling.

Greg admired her smile; he looked into her eyes and swallowed.

Then he suddenly leaned over to her, placing his lips onto hers.

It took a split second before Sara had slapped him hard on the head. She jumped up, starting to yell at him. Her voice was high-pitched and Greg winced. He groaned while Sara's voice turned into a shrill ringing.

Greg woke up, opened his eyes and found himself lying on the couch, his cell phone ringing loudly next to him.

He picked it up. "Sanders," he said tiredly. "No warrant yet? ... Will take some time?" Greg rubbed his eyes with his free hand.

"Yeah, I'll head home… No, I haven't seen Sara. She's out for the hit-and-run."

Greg finished the call and stood slowly up. He stretched and then he walked slowly to the locker room.

* * *

He had just closed his locker, when Sara was entering the room. In Greg's view she seemed to be rather angry and when she stormed through the door he stepped back and collided with the locker behind him.

Crying out shortly, he stepped a little forward only to find himself being pushed against the locker. All this happened in only a few seconds.

Sara pushed him against the locker, he saw her angry expression and though he felt slightly uncomfortable – not with her presence, but with the prospect of what she would do if he had somehow managed to anger her beyond reason – he felt also excitement rushing through him.

Sara grabbed his shoulders suddenly and quickly pressed her lips onto his.

Jammed between Sara and the locker, Greg felt as if anything around him had stopped. He wondered for a split second if he was sleeping again.

Sara was there, she was holding him, kissing him.

And then it was over. The moment was over even faster than it had come. Sara stepped back and starred into Greg's puzzled face. Then she turned around and literally ran away.

Greg remained standing in the room, rubbing his face with his hands, feeling completely stupid. He felt foolish that he had not responded, neither by action nor by words. He felt foolish that he had wasted a moment that might never come again.

And then the question began to swirl in his mind what had happened, what had caused Sara to kiss him, to kiss him in this way.

Rubbing his now slightly aching back, Greg sat down on the bench in the locker room and pondered. The pain at least told him that he had not been dreaming this time.

TBC

* * *

Well, I'd be nice if you reviewed, if you want to. 


	7. Mean to say

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

* * *

Thanks to _obsessedTWfan, remoob1513, missusmesser _and _suus _for their reviews!

Thanks again to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 7 – Mean to say**

Greg was still thinking about what had happened, when he arrived at home. He walked into his bed room directly and fell into his bed. He could not deny a certain elation he was feeling. After all, Sara had kissed him. Voluntary.

Still wondering, but also wallowing in the memory, he fell asleep quickly.

Sara invaded his dreams. He felt her again close to him on the couch in the break room, she was smiling at him. But every time he wanted to get closer to her, she drew back, held him off on a distance.

It was again the ringing of a phone that woke him up. This time it was not his cell phone but the land line. He opened his eyes and groaned. He got up slowly, but when he finally reached the phone, the ringing had already stopped. Greg cursed. It could have been Sara.

Shaking his head, he went back into his bed and it took not long until he was sleeping again, cuddling into his pillow.

* * *

Sara had not been able to sleep at all. She pondered about what she had done, what she had probably caused her relationship with Greg.

She could imagine how surprised he most likely had been.

Sara knew that it had been a blunder. It had been a spontaneous outburst of a long night, of a temptation she had felt and some bottled up frustration that had been strengthened by the hit-and-run case. They had found the car and the owner, but he had claimed that it had not been him who had caused the accident, that the car had actually been stolen and had stood in front of his house one night later.

_Sure, _Sara thought. But she had not been able to find any prints or any DNA, neither inside the car, nor outside.

The owner had stated that he had it let clean inside and outside thoroughly to "get rid of the filth of the thief" as he had verbalized it.

Sara sighed and tried to stop thinking about it.

She returned with her thoughts to Greg. He had not responded to the kiss. Was it because he had been so surprised or because he did not want it? She knew that he had had a crush on her a long time ago, long before she had seen in him what she saw in him now. But she did not know where they stood in the present, though they had worked together a lot during the last year and Sara had enjoyed it thoroughly.

Semi-unconsciously she picked up her phone and dialed Greg's number. She let it ring only a few times before she put it down. She could not do that.

A few seconds later her phone rang. Hoping, assuming it was Greg, she picked it up quickly. "Greg?" she asked breathless.

"No, it's not Greg."

When Sara recognized the voice she blushed deeply, happy that the other person could not see her, and cursed herself for acting without thinking.

"Hodges," she said dryly.

"I don't know what services from Sanders you are waiting for, but-"

"Hodges, please, what do you want?" Sara asked, sighing.

"I wanted to remind you that it's my night off tonight, so if you want your results you have to go to the tech of swing-"

"Yeah, thanks. I'll remember that."

She slammed the phone down and covered her face with her hands.

Acting without thinking. It had been the same in the morning. When she had kissed Greg, she had acted without thinking. If she had acted deliberately, she would not have done it, she would not have kissed him, like she had not done it some hours earlier on the couch in the break room.

* * *

Catherine sighed. Again she was on her way to a crime scene that promised to be another killing in the line of serial murders that had kept them busy in the last time. She counted. Thirteen were it already. Thirteen victims and two killers. So much they knew.

It was in the early evening when Catherine took a turn into a busy street and realized relived that she was only about a mile away from her destination.

She had to stop at a traffic light and she watched some people who were walking on the pavement and suddenly she smiled, as she saw Sara walking through a crowd of people. Catherine wondered rather curiously what Sara was doing there, even more so as she looked rather worried and a little nervous. Then Sara entered a building that looked like a café and Catherine could not see her anymore. The lights turned to green and Catherine drove on.

When she arrived at the scene, Nick and Warrick were already there. Still the whole swing shift was working this case, or better, these cases. Of course they still had other cases to work on, but it was tried to shove as much as possible to days or graveyard shift.

Catherine shook her head. They could not go on like this for a very long time. Ecklie got impatient already and when he had found out that all the victims were former detainees or suspects, the case had fallen down from his top priority list, as it did not promise the reputation in his eyes he had thought at first, although Catherine could only shake her head on a priority setting like this.

She got out of the car and approached Nick. "The both of them or only one of them?" she asked, referring to the assassins, of whom they knew that they sometimes killed alone and sometimes together.

"One," Nick answered calmly, used to this question. "A witness said it was a woman, she couldn't remember more."

Catherine nodded. "Thanks, Nicky."

She set to work. It promised to be a long day and she was already looking forward to the conversation with Ecklie she would have to endure.

* * *

Greg turned around in his bed abruptly. Then his phone rang again and he opened his eyes. Groaning from the last dream he had had, he got up.

In this dream Sara had been no longer smiling. For a short moment a hurt expression had crossed her face, before it had been replaced by a cold glare. She had turned to go and Greg had tried to get to her, but he had not been able to move. It had been then when he had realized that Sara had not been there anymore and the phone started to ring.

Greg stumbled to his phone and picked it up. "Sanders," he answered it with a tired voice. He thought that before late all people would assume that he never went to bed, if he continued like that.

"Hey, Greg. It's Sara."

Sara. There she was. Greg sighed inwardly. "What's up?"

Greg thought he heard Sara sigh as well. "About this morning…"

Greg took a deep breathe. "Do we have to talk about that on the phone?"

"Uh, if you'd like to meet somewhere…"

Greg liked to and before long they had agreed on meeting two hours later.

* * *

She had really preferred to talk about the whole issue on the phone, Sara thought when she entered the café where she and Greg wanted to meet. She would have had her distance and she would not have been forced to look at Greg – and to be watched by Greg - when they were talking. 

The café was nothing too cozy, as Sara wanted to keep the talk factually. She had also not dared to meet at Greg's place in fear to be tempted again there.

She sat down on a table next to a window and when the waitress came to take her orders, she simply took an orange juice.

Not long after that Greg arrived as well. He let himself fall on the chair opposite of Sara and looked at her expectantly.

Sara shifted uncomfortably, but was about to start, when her gaze fell on the waitress, who was coming up to them to take Greg's order. After she had left again, Greg said, "Well?"

Sara glanced at him. He still seemed exhausted. "Had a good day?" she asked in a neutral tone. _Don't look into his eyes._

Greg shrugged. "Didn't get so much sleep."

_Because of me?_ Sara wondered. "I tried to call you earlier already," she said, keeping her gaze straight ahead, almost past Greg. _But it is very nice to look into his eyes._

"You were?" Greg asked in a neutral tone that met hers.

"Yeah," Sara replied. She looked at Greg. "Unfortunately I got a call some seconds later and I thought it was you."

"Uh, and who was it?" Greg wanted to know, slightly smiling.

"Hodges," Sara said through gritted teeth.

Greg chuckled. "What did he want?"

"Reminded me that it's his night off."

Greg laughed. "He called you because of that? There has to be another reason behind that. He probably has a crush on you."

Sara laughed as well.

Greg got somber again. "About what you wanted to talk…," he brought the conversation back to topic.

"Well, I can imagine that you were surprised this morning…," Sara began carefully.

"Oh, yeah," Greg laughed ironically. "Though I shouldn't have been… I mean you and me, we come along quite well and-," he started hopefully, looking at Sara to gauge her feelings.

Sara cut it off. "Yeah, Greg, I'm sorry. I mean it was only…"

"Only what?" Greg asked softly, suppressing his disappointment. "It wasn't like I stood directly in front of you. You came to me, actually, and…" _And kissed me madly_.

Sara shook her head.

Greg leaned back and rubbed his eyes with his hands.

"Look, Greg. I like you."

Greg said nothing.

"I like to work with you." After some seconds of silence, Sara added, "Not only working with you." She looked downwards. "I can't promise you anything…," she looked up to Greg, talking very quietly now, "…you give me the feeling that I can trust you… and…I can't say that about a lot of guys."

* * *

Catherine was cursing silently. Nick watched her and finally said, "Calm down, Catherine. Sooner or later we'll get them." 

Catherine shook her head angrily. "Sooner or later. That's not soon enough. What am I going to tell Ecklie? The whole swing shift resources have gone to this case in the last time and the other shifts had to cover for us. And we're as far as at the beginning," she snarled.

Warrick sat back on the couch in the break room before he said, "It's not only you, Cath. You know we all are working hard."

Catherine nodded slowly, but said nothing. Warrick stood up from the couch and strode to the door. "I'm off to Trace. Maybe, this time…," he said calmly and left.

Nick and Catherine sat in silence until it was broken by Nick. "You know, I have the feeling to have lost contact to graveyard. I mean, we've worked together for a long time and… I don't know what's going on anymore…"

"Who is it?" Catherine asked rather tiredly. "Grissom? I don't think so. So Greg? Or Sara?"

When Nick didn't answer, she continued, "So, what's up with Sara?"

Nick smiled shortly about Catherine's right guess. "I don't know. That's the problem. Do you know?"

Catherine snorted briefly. "I don't claim to know what's going on in Sara Sidle's mind."

Nick shook his head. "Don't be mean, Cath," he said, though he had to chuckle shortly.

"Nah, I think she's fine, Nicky. By the way I saw her today. She seemed rather nervous, maybe on her way to a date, she was entering a café. You see: she's probably alright."

Nick frowned. "When did you see her?" he asked curiously.

"On my way to the scene," Catherine replied, shrugging.

At this moment, Warrick returned and both Nick and Catherine could see by his expression that his visit of the trace lab had not been a success.

TBC

* * *

Please review, if you like to. 


	8. Not easy to understand

**Disclaimer:** I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

* * *

Thanks to _ObessedTWFan, remoob1513, Tripp3235_ and _Jorja White_ for their reviews. 

And of course thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading. Remaining mistakes are mine.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 8 - Not easy to understand**

Unsuccessful, disappointed, and fed up with paperwork, Catherine left her office well after mid-night, only to run into Sara in the hallway. Despite her rather bad mood, remembering the conversation with Nick, she decided to be nice and try to make a friendly talk with the brunette woman.

Sara was carrying some files and had only greeted Catherine shortly, but the red-blonde woman smiled and began, "You had a nice day?"

Sara frowned briefly, but smiled then slightly, too. "Yeah, yeah, quite nice." She wondered where Catherine's friendly trip came from.

"You were out?" Catherine wanted to know.

"No."

Even if she had not known the true answer yet, Catherine could have guessed that something was not right, as Sara negated the question definitely too fast.

Catherine wondered why Sara did negate it, it seemed rather pointless to her, but she decided against further inquiry and she did not actually have the opportunity to ask further questions as Sara smiled briefly again, and then returned to a serious expression and hurried away.

She walked into the break room where she met Nick, who had lost track of time in a way, while chatting with Warrick, who had just departed and left Nick alone in the room. "Hey Sara," he greeted, cheerful to see her.

"Hey, Nick." Sara was much more pleased to see Nick than she had been to see Catherine in whose presence she always seemed to remember the occasions when both the woman had not gotten along at all.

She enjoyed chatting with Nick, who did not seem to be in a hurry to get home at all. She drank some coffee and while talking with the Texan she browsed the files she had brought with her, despite being on break.

"You work too much," Nick said suddenly, in a serious voice.

Sara smiled, continuing to reading the paper that lay in front of her. "Yeah, and I gotta go out more. I know that, Nick."

Nick laughed. "I didn't want to say that. I know that you were today-"

Sara opened her mouth to cut him off, negating it, but realized that it was pointless. She told herself that it did not make sense to act this way, after all she had only met Greg in a café for a conversation, nothing to encourage gossip in the lab, right?

Chuckling Nick stated, "Somebody saw you. No need for denial."

Sara frowned. "What if I just went somewhere alone?"

Nick grinned and inquired, "Do I know him?"

Sara shook her head.

Nick stood up from the couch, strode to her and patted her on her shoulder. "Take care," he said. Sara nodded silently and Nick left.

* * *

Some hours later Sara was walking slowly along the hallway. She had not seen Greg all night, as he was out on a scene with Sofia again.  
Sara realized that Greg actually seemed to be paired up with Sofia more often than with her lately, and was slightly annoyed about the fact. 

She could not deny that she liked working with him. Actually she had even told him that, she remembered, relieved that she had been able to be at least a little nice and open towards him, what sometimes appeared to be hard for her.

"Sara," she heard Grissom's voice from behind her. She turned around to face him. "Would you come to my office, please?"

Sara frowned slightly. "What's up?"

"I want to talk to you alone," Grissom insisted.

Sara nodded and followed him to his office, they entered it and Grissom sat down behind his desk. "Please close the door and sit down."

Sara did so, worried. What did he want to talk to her about?

"Brass told me about the hit-and-run," Grissom started.

"And?" Sara asked blankly.

"I wanted to make sure you're fine."

Since when did he care for her feelings? Sara thought, slightly irritated. But then she decided to be not unfair. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"If there are any problems …," Grissom began.

"There aren't any," Sara said decisively.

Grissom sighed and put down his glasses. He leaned a little over and looked at her intensively, with a worried expression. "Please don't go alone to crime scenes … and not in your free time either."

Sara's stomach turned to ice, while she felt her face getting hot.

"You know it's dangerous -," Grissom got never the chance to finish this sentence, as Sara was jumping up and running out of the office without any more words.

She ran along the hallway, barely realizing what was going on around her. She felt numb, the anger though quickly boiling up in her. It was focused on exactly one person.

She saw this person standing in the hallway some steps in front of her. Tears of anger threatened to come, but she suppressed them, swallowing the lump in her throat. She set on a despising expression and starred at him. After some seconds she hurried past him, the anger rising even more.

She gritted her teeth, as she was not far from crying. She would not cry in front of him, he was not worth crying, he was just like all the other guys that had betrayed her confidence, as he had told their boss of her working on the scene alone. She knew it had been stupid, dangerous actually, but that did not change the fact that he had told Grissom despite promising her not to do so, probably knowing very well what awkward situations it might cause.

"Sara," Greg called.

She did not stop. Another thing that fell in place for her now were Nick's questions earlier that night. Greg must have showed off with her meeting him, probably having a good laugh with his Texan colleague about it.

"Sara, what's wrong?" she heard him call again.

Sara began to wonder how much of her relationship with Greg was already going on around the lab, imagining embarrassed everybody knowing about her kissing him in the locker room. She should have known. Greg had flirted with her for years, the others never thinking he had a chance with her. It must have been great for him to tell them how she had fallen for him.

She turned around abruptly. "Don't play dumb, Greg," she spat.

"What?" Greg said helpless, his eyes widened.

"Do you know how awkward this was?" she yelled at him.

"What?" Greg repeated, wearing an expression of deepest puzzlement.

"What about Grissom summoning me to his office and telling me like a little girl what's dangerous," she declared infuriated.

"I don't under –, " Greg started, lost.

" 'Don't go to the scene alone'," Sara tried to quote Grissom in a fierce voice. "'And not in your free time either'. I thought he did not know," she spat, barely able to keep her voice down. "That was so embarrassing."

Greg's shoulders dropped, he closed his eyes shortly. "Well, it's dangerous after all-", he started in a calming voice, but was interrupted by the ringing of Sara's cell phone.

"Sidle," Sara answered it, trying to calm down a little for the phone call. After some seconds of listening she said, "Yeah, good," and shut the phone out.

She turned away from Greg and walked back the way she had come, Greg following after her.

She found Grissom coming out of his office, giving her a short look of concern. Sara decided to act as if the conversation some minutes ago had never happened. Greg had come to a halt next to her, wearing an asking expression.

"Brass called me some minutes ago," Sara stated, "he got a warrant for the house."

Grissom nodded. "Good. Take Greg with you."

Sara gritted her teeth, but said nothing. She hurried away, Greg on her toes. "Sar-,"

Without turning around to him, Sara hissed, "Stop it, Sanders. We have to work now."

* * *

They did not change a single word during the drive to the house. 

Greg sat in silence. He had understood now why Sara was so angry, or at least he understood it partly. Grissom had obviously talked to her about her lone trip to the scene and she thought that Greg had told him about it.

Greg sighed silently, watching Sara, who was driving, out of the corner of his eyes. He had to make her understand that it had not been him. And he had to find out what else was behind Sara's fury. He did not dare to start the topic during the drive as Sara had to concentrate on driving. Yelling at Greg – something she would most likely do again, Greg assumed – would not be helpful for that.

Sara parked the car and Greg could see Brass standing together with two other police officers on the other side of the street. There was also a tall man with them who wore a suit and was talking angrily to Brass who listened calmly.

Sara got out of the car without acknowledging Greg's presence but slamming the door behind her shut.

When Greg walked behind Sara to the other side of the road, he could hear the suit-wearing man saying, "My client isn't in favor of an intruding into his property-"

Brass nodded calmly, "You've mentioned this before. And I told you already that we have a warrant. And I'm sure your client isn't in favor of dead bodies in his backyard either."

He saw Sara and Greg approaching and greeted them briefly. Pointing at the man next to him, he stated, "This is Mr. Dickson. He is the realtor of this house."

He turned to the man he had just introduced. "Now open the door please, Mr. Dickson."

Starting again to complain, the realtor did so. Smoothing his black jacket, he walked inside, Brass and the two police men and then Sara and Greg following them.

Both police men immediately walked into the next room and disappeared from sight.

"What are they doing?" the realtor wanted to know irritated.

"They clear the scene," Brass replied simply.

Mr. Dickson's face became red out of anger. "This is no crime scene," he declared.

"We'll see," Brass said laconically.

"That is impudent!" the realtor declared.

Brass's expression was calm. Matter-of-factly he said, "I'll explain it to you once more: the body of a murdered woman was found in the backyard that can be reached through the alley next to this house and we have reason to believe that she was killed inside this house."

"Rubbish. However, do I know her?" Mr. Dickson said coldly.

"Be careful," Brass declared.

Sara broke into the conversation. "We could not identify her yet."

"Maybe you can," Brass said eagerly.

Sara packed out some pictures that had been taken of the dead woman. Brass took one of them and showed it to the realtor.

"No, I don't know her and whoever this bitch-"

"Be careful, Mr. Dickson. I say it again: be careful what you're saying," Brass declared sharply.

Greg thought that this warning was appropriate in more than one way, as he could see that Sara frowned deeply, a very angry expression on her face. She already wanted to rip off Greg's head, so it did not seem to be a good idea to anger her even more.

At this moment the two police men returned. Brass nodded to Sara and she walked into the next room, Greg following her.

The room was completely empty, which was no surprise, as the house was not inhabited.

Sara walked to the far end of the room. She put on gloves and opened the window in front of her. She looked out of it and down into the backyard. Then she shut the window and Greg asked, "What are you searching for?"

"I found blood on the wall. I'm searching for the window where it came from, of course."

Greg nodded, remembering the night when they had found the blood on the wall. He followed Sara in the next room that lay on the right side of the previous one. Greg noticed that it had two doors leading into it like the other room where they had been before and that in contrast to the previous room several pieces of furniture stood in there. One door was on the left side, through which they had just entered the room and one was opposite of the window, on Greg's right side.

Sara walked to the window and opened it. She looked out and then she opened her kit and got out the luminol that she used to spray the window frame.

Greg watched her silently. Sara looked up to him. "Don't stand around. Get to work," she snarled.

"Sara, whatever it is, I'm sure we can talk this out."

"Sanders, you're at work, I'm in charge and I tell you to move your butt and get to work."

Greg fell silent, opened his kit and put on gloves. He strode to the window where Sara was standing. He looked at the frame of the window. The luminol showed traces of blood; Sara took a sample and bagged it.

At the edge of the frame she could see white fibers that looked suspiciously like the fibers that she had found on the body.

About ten feet away from where Sara was standing, on direct line between the window and the door on the other side of the room, Greg found what looked like a piece of cloth. He crouched to pick it up. "But Sara-"

"Shut up, Sanders, or you'll be in trouble," Sara spat in a very angry tone, still using the impersonal surname.

She said nothing more.

Greg stood up, still looking on the piece in his gloved hands, though his thoughts were not completely there.

He looked up from it to Sara. "Do you-," he started, but then he froze. What was happening here? Why did Sara stare at him? Why was her look so full of hate? And why - Greg had to remind himself to breathe - why was Sara pointing a gun at him?

TBC


	9. Not real at all

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N 1: **Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading, remaining mistakes are mine.

**

* * *

Chapter 9 – Not real at all **

Greg looked at the gun in Sara's hands that was pointed in his direction. He looked at her face that wore a hardened expression, the eyes full of hate. This was not the earlier expression of anger.

Greg stood there, shocked, nailed to the spot where he was standing, still holding the piece of cloth in his hands in front of him, though he felt an instinct to raise his hands. An icy feeling crept over his head and it felt to him as if his hair was standing on end – even more than usual. His effort to keep his voice calm failed, when he started, "Sara, what-,"

"Shut up, Greg," Sara said with a shaking voice.

Suddenly Greg heard another voice from behind him. "You should listen to her."

Greg was startled and wanted to turn around, when the person behind him spoke again, "Don't move or you'll regret it."

Greg froze and looked at Sara, unbelieving.

"He has a gun," she said quietly. Greg swallowed.

"And I think I'm going to use it," the man behind Greg said threateningly.

Greg looked down at the floor. He could not bear the sight of Sara holding the gun in his direction anymore, though it was clear now of course that she was aiming at the man behind him who made sure that Greg was in the line between them.

"You won't get away, if you shoot us," he said, shaking. "Captain Brass and his men are outside. They would hear the shoots."

"True," Greg heard the voice from behind and tried to reason with the man, "If you just go, you'll have a head start and nobody will be harmed."

Then he was startled when something collided with his back and dropped to the floor.

"Pick it up," the man commanded and added in Sara's direction, "You put down the gun."

Sara did not react and held her gun aimed at the man.

Greg turned around to pick up whatever the man had thrown. It was a bag. Greg picked it up and glanced into the direction of the man. Surprised he realized that it was the realtor. "You," he said plainly.

"Yeah, me. And now your friend puts down her gun or we'll have dead here."

Now Sara interfered, "You'd get hit as well - that can I promise you."

Obviously not wanting to take the risk, the realtor turned his attention back to Greg, though he still pointed his gun at Sara. "Take the bag and put your nice little bags in there," he indicated the evidence bags Sara had a laid on a nearby table, one of the few pieces of furniture that stood in this room.

Greg walked over to the table and placed the evidence bags into the man's bag.

"Next: your cell phones, please."

Greg hesitated. The man ordered him around though he was not in a better position than the both CSIs, as Sara had her gun pointed at him as well. However, Greg knew that Sara would not shoot if she did not have to, not wanting to take the responsibility for anybody's death. So their best possibility was playing along with the guy, hoping that nobody would get hurt if they did so.

"Now," yelled the man and Greg walked over to his kit and brought out his cell phone. "Please hold it with two fingers only. I don't want you to accidentally dial a number," the realtor spoke again, in an ironically polite way.

Greg put his cell phone into the bag. "Her phone, too," the man ordered.

Greg walked to Sara's kit, assuming that her phone was in her kit as well. He was right and he put it into the realtor's bag.

"Fine, fine. Now bring the bag to me."

Greg strode to the man and placed the bag in front of him. The realtor picked it up, aiming the gun at Greg now.

Greg thought that this was Sara's chance, as the gun was not pointed at her anymore, but he knew that she would not shoot.

He looked at the man in front of him. "It's pointless, you know. You won't get away with the murder," he said, still a little shaking, his voice hoarsely.

"You're right. It was me who killed the little bitch. Anyway, you shouldn't worry about me, but rather about you," the man replied and wondered loudly, "What am I going to do with the both of you?"

Greg stood still in front of him, slightly trembling, while Sara did not make any sound.

"I think I'll lock you in here. I listened to your lovely conversation a short while ago. Maybe you'll kill each other and solve two of my problems," the realtor said grinning and chuckling about his own joke, and added, "Don't wonder, the door through that you've come I've already locked from the outside. Your Captain Brass didn't realize a thing. Thinks I'm gone. I played a nice little act to him, didn't I? ... You," he said, pointing at Greg. "You go back to the spot there," he indicated the place where Greg had found the piece of cloth. Greg walked over there, still facing the realtor.

"Yeah, I like to have you between me and the girl. Now turn around."

Greg did so, trembling, and was now facing Sara again, who was still holding her gun directed on the man behind Greg.

Greg looked at Sara, afraid the man would just shoot him from behind or would shoot Sara, making sure she would not be able to shoot back, and then kill Greg.

* * *

Jim Brass had cursed when he had realized that something had gone wrong. 

He had hurried to the room where Sara and Greg had disappeared into, but when he pressed the door handle he detected that the door was locked. He called the police men who had accompanied him and the both of them worked to break open the door.

Brass could hear voices coming from the inside, but he could neither identify them nor could he understand what they were saying. Then he could not hear anybody talking for some seconds and that was the moment when the lock finally gave in and Brass opened the door.

What he saw inside the room convinced him to be in a suspended reality.

Sanders was standing in the middle of the room, apparently shaken, and Sara was pointing a gun at him.

Then Sara turned her head towards Brass and lowered the gun. "He's gone through the door," she said hoarsely and pointed to the door that was on Brass' right side.

"Who?" he asked inquisitively.

"The realtor. He's armed. He's gone through that door just a second before you came."

Brass understood now - Sara had aimed at the guy, not at Greg. However, there was no time for reflection and he and the other police men hurried towards the by Sara indicated door. "It's locked," Brass heard Greg's voice. The boy was obviously still shaken, Brass thought.

He hurried after one of the other police man out of the door that they had broken open, leaving Sara and Greg behind with the other one.

When Brass had left, Sara turned away from Greg, completely overcome. She could hear that Greg was saying something, but her brain did not process the information her ears received. She walked semi-unconsciously to the window. There were still those white fibers on the frame. The realtor had taken the evidence bags with the fibers Sara had collected. She took a new bag and started to pick up fibers and putting them into the bag.

Greg came over to her and held her arm and she shivered from the touch. "You don't have to do this now," he said seriously.

"I have to," Sara insisted and freed her arm from Greg's hold.

She put some more fibers into the bag, sealed it, labeled it and was about to take a new sample of the blood on the frame, when Greg said, "Brass will get him and then we'll have the evidence bags back."

At this moment Brass returned. "Unfortunately, we didn't get him. He's gone, but the search is on."

Sara, who had just stopped working to listen to Brass, restarted taking samples.

"You two should get home and relax your nerves. Somebody else will finish here," Brass said gravely.

Sara shook her head. "No, no, we'll do it. Or I'll do it, if Greg doesn't want to. Almost finished." And with these words she continued to examine the frame of the window.

Greg looked at Brass, helpless.

"This shouldn't have happened," Brass said, shaking his head, "I mean, we are here to protect you."

Greg shook his head. "I don't think it's your fault." Actually he did not know if it was the fault of Brass and his colleagues, but Greg would not make Brass feel worse than he obviously already did.

The both men watched Sara, who worked frantically. Greg caught himself turning around nervously every few seconds, still shaken from the situation they had gotten out smoothly.

Brass noticed that. "Warrick should be here any moment. I called him before I came back. I also tried to reach Gil and Nick, but Gil's out on a scene and Nick didn't answer his phone."

Greg nodded. Brass probably thought that Greg could not give Sara support now, being too shaken himself. And Greg had to admit that Brass was maybe right to a certain extend, not to forget the still unsolved problems between him and Sara, and it was not the right time to talk about that.

He saw that Sara finally finished working and packed her things. At this moment Warrick entered the room and greeted them. He threw Brass a short look and the exchange between them showed Greg that Brass had already told Warrick what had happened.

Warrick strode over to Sara and took her kit. He talked to her calmly and convinced her easily to bring her home. The both left, leaving Brass and Greg behind. "You'll get along alone?" Brass asked Greg quietly and the former lab tech nodded.

TBC

**

* * *

A/N 2:** Thank you for your reviews! 

_Tripp3235, Duckie24, ObessedTWFan: _I thought I write for once something that's not completely predictable and eleven minutes after updating, I get a review that shows me I was mistaken ;). Oh, and the answer would be yes then.

_remoob1513: _No, it's no dream, not this time. I'm not so sure you really want to know what's in my head ;) . Yeah, it is a little ironic. I like it when you see these little things.

_cherrydrops12: _Greg's breath was away, too ;).

_battlestarcsi, Lady-Of-The-Rings: _Also thanks to you.


	10. Admit

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**A/N: **Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading, remaining mistakes are mine.

Thanks to _ObessedTWFan, possum, missusmesser, Tripp3235, remoob1513, charmed1818 _and_ icklebitodd _for your reviews.

_icklebitodd: _I'm still trying to find out what that means ;-).

**

* * *

Chapter 10 – Admit**

Warrick closed the door of Sara's apartment behind him and followed Sara in the living room. She sat down in a chair and buried her face in her hands. At first Warrick thought that she was crying. Then she put down her hands and he saw not a single trace of tears in her face, but she looked exhausted. "I was so afraid," she said simply.

"That's normal, Sara," Warrick replied softly.

"I was so afraid… for me and for Greg… and I saw the fear in his face. That was the worst- I mean seeing this guy pointing his gun at him and seeing his fear."

Sara sighed barely audible.

"You both were lucky and you're both safe now," Warrick said in a calming voice.

"Even my anger at him was blown away like nothing. I was only so afraid for him and for me. I expected every second that the guy would pull the trigger and shoot Greg in front of me."

Warrick nodded silently. Then he frowned. "Why were you angry at Greg?"

Sara said nothing, but looked at the table in front of her.

"Sorry, you don't have to tell me," Warrick said apologizing.

"Actually," Sara said slowly, "I still should be angry at him, but I just can't right now," she shook her head. "It was stupid. He told Grissom that I had gone to a scene alone in my free time. Grissom wanted to talk to me about it – that was awkward," she grimaced, "and I was of-,"

"Wait a moment," Warrick said suddenly. "You think that Greg told Grissom about that?"

Sara shrugged. "Who else? I mean there aren't a lot of people who know about it."

"I do," Warrick stated seriously. "And it was me who told Grissom about it, not Greg. I met Greg in the hallway and he asked me after you. I told him that I had seen you leave the lab about four hours ago. Greg seemed to be worried and called you when you were on the scene. So I knew as well that you had gone alone," Warrick explained.

"Greg left to go to the scene. Some minutes later Grissom came to me and asked after you. I tried to cover for you, but I didn't want to lie to him and so I finally told him without any further details that you had returned to a scene alone and that Greg was now out to go there, too. I'm sorry Sara," he finished.

Sara laughed shortly, "No worries, really. It was stupid anyway. Greg had promised not to tell Grissom and I drew wrong conclusions too quickly," Sara smiled, relieved.

Warrick grinned. "Is there something between you and Greg? People got this impression lately…"

Sara narrowed her eyes. "Who do you mean with 'people'? You? Or Nick? Or Catherine?"

Warrick shook his head chuckling. "No, Cath and Nick don't have a clue. Nick is worrying a little about you and Catherine just thinks it's one of your moods. But I guessed right, didn't I?"

Sara stood up, looking doubting. "I don't know," she started, but then she sat down again and smiled, "Maybe." She looked at Warrick and her expression confirmed his guess. "He's a good guy, Sara," he said smiling, "Sometimes still a kid maybe, but you know he'd do everything for you," he continued and added seriously, "and he'd never hurt you."

Sara nodded, smiling sadly.

"And he has a serious crush on you," Warrick said grinning.

* * *

When Sara entered the break room of the lab in the evening, she realized immediately that the incident that had happened in the morning was not forgotten. Grissom was sitting in the room, obviously waiting for her, looking serious and maybe even affected. Brass was with him and they both stopped talking, when Sara came into the room.

Grissom stood up. "Sara, do you feel ready to go back to work already or do you want a day off?"

Sara looked at him meaningfully and said nothing, as every person in the room knew that Grissom's question had been pointless from the beginning.

"Do you have the guy?" she asked instead of an answer to Grissom's question.

Brass shook his head. "No, we haven't heard anything."

At this moment Greg walked into the room. Sara thought that he looked troubled.

Brass nodded towards Greg. "Good that you're here. I just want a short statement from both of you about what has happened, what the guy said. Maybe we'll get a hint and it's a witness statement of course. Do you want to do this together?" Brass asked.

"No," replied Sara quickly and a gloomy expression crossed Greg's face.

Brass and Sara left the room and Sara was glad to get away from Greg. She felt awkward, remembering how she had yelled and snapped at him the previous day without giving him any opportunity to explain himself. And it had been completely unjustified.

Well, maybe not completely, Sara thought, as she still did not know where Nick had gotten his ideas from, though Warrick had said that Nick did not have a clue of what was going on between Sara and Greg. What _had _been going on, Sara thought sorrowful.

She and Brass had gone in the next room.

"Why don't you want to do this together with Greg?" Brass wanted to know.

Sara frowned. "I think Greg doesn't have to do this at all, I mean, he hasn't seen everything from the beginning. And I was in charge, so I'm responsible for what happened-,"

Brass shook his head. "You're not responsible at all. If it is somebody's fault, then mine, as I let give me the run around. Just tell me what happened."

"We were working in the room. I started to lift prints from the frame of the window. I turned around to look what Greg had found on the floor because he had crouched. At this moment the realtor came out from behind a wardrobe that had blocked him from sight. He had drawn a gun but had not pointed it at anybody at this moment, so I had the chance to draw mine as well. He quickly lifted his and directed it at Greg. I aimed at the realtor, but I did not dare to say a single word," Sara recounted. She shook her head, "Everything happened so fast, I hadn't the chance to think what to do at all."

Brass nodded.

Sara continued. "Greg was concentrated on the piece of cloth he had found, he hadn't noticed what had happened. He got up and looked at me. He saw the gun and looked puzzled, shocked. He probably thought I was aiming at him, as the guy stood directly behind him." Sara let out a short laugh, but looked sad and Brass thought that he could see tears in her eyes.

"Greg started babbling something, but I told him to shut up. I was so scared that the guy would shoot him from behind. … He threatened to shoot us, but Greg tried to reason with him, told him that he wouldn't get away if he shot us as the police was outside," Sara paused a moment.

"Then he threw a bag into Greg's back and told him to pick it up. Greg had to put the evidence bags and our cell phones it the bag – later he locked us in the room and obviously wanted to avoid that we could call for help. Greg brought him the bag and the guy picked it up and pointed his gun away from me, but at Greg. I… I couldn't shoot… he would have shot Greg…"

"Sara, nobody expected you to do so. You did the right thing. You both got out there safe," Brass said in a calming, but insistent voice.

"He ordered Greg to go back to the spot between me and him and to turn around. I saw Greg's fear, he expected that the guy would shoot, but he walked slowly backwards towards the door behind him, still aiming the gun at Greg. He walked through the door and shut it quickly. I could just hear the turning of a key in the lock when the door on the right side of the room broke open and you entered the room," Sara finished.

"Did the guy tell you anything more?" Brass asked.

"Yeah, he confessed the homicide of the woman. You still don't know who she is, do you?" Sara wanted to know. Brass shook his head and Sara sighed. "He didn't give any further detail."

Somebody knocked at the door at this moment and Brass stood up to open it. Sara turned her head to see who it was and saw Greg standing outside.

"Do you need me here? Grissom's just given me a new assignment together with Sofia;" Greg stated in a neutral tone.

Sara turned her head back from the door and looked at the table in front of her.

"We can talk later and I think Sara has already told me the most important things," Brass declared and Greg left, shrugging.

"You alright?" Brass asked Sara. She nodded, stood up quickly and went to search for some work she could do, everything she could possibly do seemed more appealing than thinking about the more complicated aspects of life – like relationships.

* * *

Brass found her some hours later doing paperwork. He stopped at the entrance of the room. "We got the guy," he said simply, as there was no necessity to clarify.

Sara looked up, "How?" She packed away the papers.

"His car was recognized about fifty miles away from Vegas."

Sara jumped up. "We need a DNA sample and have to compare it to the traces of DNA that were found-," she rambled and walked to the door of the room.

Brass smiled. "Of course, Sara." He turned around to look at what Sara was staring so intensively and saw Greg approaching. He heard a quick "Bye," from Sara and saw her already well down the hallway when he turned back to where she had been standing some seconds ago.

Greg's gaze followed Sara when he came to a halt next to Brass. "Do you still want a statement from me?" he asked.

Brass nodded and wondered what was up with the former lab tech. While he had understood that Greg had been shaken after the incident at the scene he did not understand the apparent indifference he carried around now. "Let's make it short though. And on a positive note: Mr. Dickson was arrested about one hour ago."

"Good," replied Greg apparently untouched.

* * *

When Sara left the lab in the morning, the cold morning air blew in her face. She walked some steps away from the exit and took in the first light of the day.

Then she heard somebody behind her and turned around abruptly. Greg. She set on a forced smile.

"Are you avoiding me?" Greg asked calmly.

"No, I'm not," Sara answered quickly. Greg raised his eye-brows and Sara could see some of Greg's old waggishness in his eyes.

"Okay, I am," she admitted, turning a little away from him. He came over to her and stopped directly next to her. Sara started to stride down the street and Greg walked beside her. They walked some minutes in silence until Greg questioned, "Why didn't you want us to give Brass a statement together? I mean, it would have been easier…"

Sara waited some seconds with her answer. "I was in charge."

"Like you told me very impressively," Greg said dryly, remembering Sara's harsh words.

"Oh, Greg, I'm sorry," Sara said sadly.

Greg stopped dead, causing Sara to come to a halt as well. Sara looked upset and then asked suddenly, "Why are you here?"

When Greg did not answer, she clarified, "I treated you like trash; I hurt you, Greg. Damn it, why are you here?" She narrowed her eyes. "I treated you as if I hated you, though I…"

Greg tried to gauge want she wanted to say.

"You can't know me, Greg."

She closed her eyes and Greg just wanted to hug her.

She opened her eyes again and looked at him intensively. Sounding snuffy, she asked, "Tell me, when you saw me holding the gun, you thought I was aiming at you, didn't you?"

TBC

* * *

Sorry, if this is a little abrupt ending, but the next chapter will be up soon. 


	11. Although I want

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters.

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**

* * *

**

**A/N:** Well, it's not as soon as I thought it would be; I got a little distracted from this story. Anyway, be prepared for some more drama ;) , but it's over soon, as this is the second from last chapter.

Thanks to _FongSaiYuk319 _for beta-reading, remaining mistakes are mine.

Thanks to _remoob1513, icklebitodd, __charmed1818__, ObessedTWFan _and _knadineg _for your reviews.

_loose-canon-with-a-gun: _As you can write your reviews in English, you couldtry to write your fics in English as well :) .

**

* * *

Chapter 11: Although I want**

Greg was sitting on the floor in Sara's living room. Sara was drifting to sleep and Greg watched her, remembering when he had done the same in his apartment several days ago.

After her last shocking question, Greg had not replied anything, but had brought a reluctant Sara to her car and had driven her home. Sara had sat in silence, but when they had entered her apartment, she had insisted, "Answer me, Greg."

He had shut the door behind himself and had turned to her. "You can't expect me to answer that question, Sara. We know each other long enough that you don't have to ask me something like that." Of course he had thought in the first moment that Sara had pointed the gun at him, what else was he supposed to think? But as this was only a natural reaction without meaning that he did not trust her or something, he would never tell her that.

He had laid the keys of her car on the wardrobe and had turned to go.

"Please stay," Sara's voice had sounded almost neutral, but Greg had been able to see the pleading in her expression.

* * *

Sara's eyes shot open and she looked around, disoriented in the dark. Somebody had drawn the curtains shut. The remembrance of the nightmare, which she had just had, was still in her head.

Greg had been standing trembling between her and the realtor behind him who had been pointing his gun at Greg. Sara had seen the fear in his face. And then she had heard the ear-deafening sound of a shot.

She rubbed her eyes and then she looked at the floor next to the couch and saw Greg in the dim light that was coming through the window.

He was lying on the floor, covered with a blanket.

Sara felt guilty that she had quasi forced Greg to sleep on the floor. She had wanted him to stay, but she occupied the couch. She should have gone to bed and left the couch for Greg, although it filled her with relief to actually see that he was there. If she had slept in the bed room and he on the couch, she would now have woken up wondering he was really there, if he was really safe.

Sara fell asleep again, calmed down by Greg's presence.

The next time when she opened her eyes, she immediately looked at the spot where Greg had been lying, only he was not there anymore.

She sat up and turned around, searching the room for him. She got uneasy. "Greg?"

"Yeah?" she heard his voice coming out of the kitchen and some seconds later she also got his physical presence and a good morning grin – or good evening, however you saw it.

"What are you grinning about?"

Greg leaned against the door frame casually. "I'm considering suing you because you forced me to sleep on your hard floor causing incredible pains in my back."

Sara looked at him bewildered for a moment. Then she pursed her lips and smiled broadly, when Greg said, "Just kidding."

"Though your floor is really not too soft and my back still hasn't recovered from your impressive … uh, activities in the locker room…."

Sara looked downwards, suppressing a smile.

She walked past Greg into the kitchen to look what he had done there. "You made lunch?"

"Yeah, with the ample choice your fridge gave me," Greg said teasing.

Sara grimaced. "I know."

"But still I managed to conjure an eatable meal," Greg grinned and pointed at the food on the table.

Sara sat down and helped herself. They ate some minutes in silence, until Sara stated, "It's a mess, isn't it?"

Greg nodded.

"I'm so sorry how I treated you yesterday. I really don't know why you're still here."

"I can't deny that it hurt me, Sara, but I'm still here because of you."

"Despite me."

Greg shook his head. He stood up and strode next to Sara's chair. He took her hand and pulled her up. Then he led her to her bed room. "What's up, Greg?" she asked perplexed.

"Just put on some clothes you like," Greg answered mysteriously.

Sara frowned. "Why?"

Greg smiled insecure. "We both have the night off and I'll go out with you," he said, slightly concerned that he was going too far.

"You can't do that," Sara protested and Greg's heart sank. They looked at each other for a moment. Then Sara walked into her bed room and Greg could see that she opened her wardrobe, before she closed the door, so that he could not look into the room anymore. Greg smiled. So she would come with him. He hoped it would bring her to other thoughts.

Not much later Sara came out of the room again and Greg smiled when he saw her. Sara went to get her jacket and her purse, while Greg waited at the front door. When she came towards him, he opened the door. Then he stopped. "Uh, I just wanted to say that I didn't tell Grissom about..." It had come to his mind that they had not even talked this out.

Sara sighed inwardly. Why did he have to come up with Grissom now? But she nodded and shoved him out of the apartment. "I know. And even if you had, I completely overreacted. I mean, in a way, he had to know." She closed the door behind her.

Greg stopped. "Unfortunately you didn't let me explain-,"

Sara took his hand and made him to continue walking. "I'm sorry. And I even thought you had showed off to Nick."

Greg raised his eyebrows. "What?"

"Well, he asked me some questions and I thought you showed off to him that I kissed you and everything."

Greg glanced at her, grinning. "Well, it's definitely something to show off with."

Sara looked a little shocked.

"But of course I haven't. I mean…," Greg stopped in mid sentence and Sara pulled him along the way.

* * *

When they returned late at night, Sara felt a strange combination of overwhelming tiredness and happiness. It was dreamlike when she and Greg entered her apartment, because she felt as if her movement was on automat, so tired was she, but at the same time joyful, though exhausted. "I think I'll go to bed," she said, yawning.

Greg rubbed his eyes. "Uh, I'll head home then."

"No way, you stay," Sara declared, surprisingly sharply for the time of the night and her tiredness.

Greg nodded agreeing. He certainly had no problem with this decision. He moved into the direction of the couch, but Sara took his hand and held him back. "You can sleep in the bedroom."

Greg was suddenly very awake. "And you?"

Sara turned away from him. "Well, I will, too." She knew too well what Greg was thinking about.

He sounded doubting. "Are you sure? I mean do you really want…."

Sara turned to face him and yawned again. "We won't do _that_," she declared smiling, "but please come with me to the bedroom. I mean the bed is large enough and...," she stopped, wondering if she should really tell him the reason for her wish. "I want to know that you're here. I mean when I wake up I want to see you, because…," she looked at the floor.

"Yeah, of course, Sara," agreed Greg understanding, though surprised by her openness.

* * *

Sara opened her eyes. Blending light came through the window on her right side. She turned away from the window, only to find Greg lying on the left side of the bed. He lay a little away from her, facing her, but sleeping. Sara smiled, but then she sighed.

How long did she want to go on like that? She could not expect Greg to sleep at her place every day only because she wanted to see him when she woke up.

This thought raised another question in her. Did she only want to make sure that he was there because of the frightening events two days ago, or was more behind that? She certainly felt comfortable in his presence. So she wanted him to stay at her place, because she wanted to be near him?

Sara sighed again, sat up a little and then let herself fall back on her pillow. The bed wavered slightly and Greg opened his eyes. He saw Sara next to him, who looked at the ceiling. "Good morning."

Sara started a little, as she had been in thoughts. She turned to face Greg. "Good morning," she smiled. They both lay there, facing each other, both of them under their own blanket. Then Sara jumped out of the bed suddenly. She ran out of the room, but called, "I'll take a shower." Two seconds later Greg could hear her again, a little farer away, "Without you."

Greg who had set up, fell back onto his pillow, laughing.

* * *

About an hour later, Greg stood up from his chair in the kitchen. "I gotta go now."

Sara nodded. Greg walked to the front door, put on his jacket and opened the door. Then he heard Sara coming up behind him. He turned around and she smiled insecurely. He waited for her to do or say something, but nothing happened.

"See you tonight," he said finally and Sara nodded only. Greg left and closed the door behind him.

* * *

"The DNA sample we got from Dickson was a match to the DNA that was found on the victim," Grissom told his team on the pre-shift meeting the next night. "The blood you found, Sara, was a match to the victim and Hodges confirmed that the white fibers you found are the same like those on the body and are the same material like the cloth Greg found," he summed up.

"You did our work," Sara exclaimed.

"The lab did the lab's work," Grissom stated calmly.

Greg raised his eyebrows. "Your Shakespeare quotes were better," he blurted out.

Now Grissom raised his eyebrows, too, while Sofia was reading some reports, untouched.

"You two need some vacation?" Grissom asked composedly, looking from Greg to Sara and back.

Greg glanced at Sara and grinned. She grimaced, apparently suppressing a grin.

Grissom decided to say nothing and handed Sara a piece of paper. "A robbery turned homicide for you," he said and gave Sofia another paper, "and a double homicide for Sofia and Greg."

* * *

In the morning Greg was just closing his locker, when Sara entered the room, giving Greg a déjà-vu feeling, though the situation was not exactly the same as when Sara had kissed him. This time she seemed calm and smiled at him, when she came into the room.

She stopped in front of him, looking into his eyes expectantly. He came closer to her. Their faces were only inches away from each other, when Sara drew back.

A lot of different thoughts rushed through her head. What should she do? Yes or no? She looked at Greg one more second and decided yes. She came closer to him again, but at this moment he turned away.

Greg could feel her doubt. They had to stop. Driving Sara to something that she did not want was the last thing he wanted. "You can't do this," he stated sorrowful, walking some steps away from her, only able this way to keep up his decision.

Sara felt cold. "What?"

"You don't want this."

"I…I do."

There, she was not so sure, Greg thought. But still she came to him again and again, only to draw back again. "No, you don't. And because you don't want this you can't keep playing around with me."

"Playing around?" Sara sounded hurt.

Greg turned away. "I'm just a play for your moods," he said, though he knew that this was not true. He did not know why she behaved like she did, but he knew that he had to stop this.

Sara walked past him and faced him. "No, Greg."

"You kiss me, and then you run away. You give me signals as if you want more, but you don't even go so far to trust me not to spill your secrets." Now Greg was angry at himself that he had said this. He had said it only to stop her from arguing.

"I trust you," Sara said, sounding slightly despaired, taking his hand into hers.

"You do? But you don't want this," Greg shook his head, freeing his hand.

"How do you want to know?"

"I can see it," he insisted and was a little shocked by the cold tone he had unintentionally used.

Sara narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she said finally. "Fine, then I won't try again. That's it then." She threw on last glance at him, turned around and walked away quickly without looking back.

Greg knew better than to call after her, though this was what his inside urged him to do. And he knew that it was all messed up. Whatever they, he and Sara, had had was over. Her expression had told him that too clearly.

He felt empty and drained. In the distance he saw Sara turning around a corner and then he could not see her anymore. She was gone.

He hoped he had made the right decision. He wanted to save their friendship, as he feared he would destroy it if he prompted Sara to do something she obviously did not want to do.

She had shown some signs to him, but she also drawn back whenever they came a step closer. She did not want it and Greg accepted that. It was better to be only her friend than risk even that, but Greg feared that even that was not possible anymore.

* * *

Sara turned around and fled. She knew it was a flight. She had thrown a last angry look at Greg, although she felt more sadness than anger.

She hurried away from him, not turning around once more. She did not want him to see the tears that had filled her eyes. She swallowed and shut her eyes to suppress the salty water. She turned around a corner and was relieved to get out of Greg's sight, as she knew he had watched her go, somehow still hoping Greg would come after her.

She hurried out of the lab, glad that she did not meet anyone on the way.

She closed the door of her apartment behind her. She let her purse drop on the floor and walked into the living room. She sat down on the floor in front of her couch and let the tears, that she had tried to held back since she had left Greg, go. Now she was crying. She cried until the tears stopped because of pure exhaustion.

It was completely dark now in the room and Sara did not care to switch on a light. She sat there some more minutes until she stood up and stumbled into the bed room. She also did not care to change into pajamas. She let herself fall into her bed completely dressed. She curled under the blanket and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

TBC


	12. Risk something

**Summary: **While swing shift has to work on several killings of a serial murderer,

everybody starts to wonder if Greg and Sara are not telling them something. (Sara/Greg)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own CSI or any of its characters, but I own all the grammar mistakes in this chapter ;)

**A/N: **Well, here's the last chapter.

Thanks to _icklebitodd, Tripp 3235, remoob1513, ObessedTWFan, charmed1818, Cherrydrops12_ and _battlestarcsi_ for your reviews and here we go.

**

* * *

Chapter 12 - Risk something **

Catherine heard the laughter long before she entered the break room of the lab. She heard Nick and Warrick talking and then the chuckling of both of them. She remained staying in the entrance and frowned, "Hey guys. Listen. Bad news – well, however you take it, but bad news for the case: we won't work primarily on the shooting cases anymore. Ecklie has enough."

"It's going to become cold," Nick said.

Catherine shook her head. "It already is. It hasn't happened anything during the last two weeks and until we get a new lead out of thin air…," she shrugged. "I don't like this any more than you do, but we have no choice."

* * *

Several hours later found the two men once again in the break room.

"And did you see how he looked?" Nick asked. Warrick nodded chuckling. "Yeah."

Greg entered the room and looked at his two co-workers. "You are enjoying yourself?"

"We do," Nick replied. "And you? You don't look so happy lately. What's up?"

Greg sat down on the couch and Nick continued, "Sara seems a little distressed, too. What's wrong with the graveyard shift? Is Grissom not nice, or what?"

Greg chuckled despite himself. "No, it's not Grissom."

"Some time ago you seemed so happy, Greggo. I thought you have a new girlfriend. What happened?" Nick asked.

Greg sighed. "It didn't work."

Warrick, who had only listened with half an ear until now, turned to them and listened attentively.

"Why?" Nick went into it.

Greg stood up and walked over to where the coffee maker stood. "She didn't want it."

Nick nodded silently and Greg poured some coffee into his cup. He turned around and saw that Warrick was looking at him – seriously, worried? Greg could not gauge it exactly.

At this moment Grissom stuck his head through the door. "Here you are, Greg. Please hurry up. I need both you and Sara."

Greg nodded. He swallowed a large gulp of his coffee, as it would be cold when he returned, and then hurried after Grissom.

He and Sara had not been exactly unfriendly to each other the last couple of weeks, but still it was not like it had been before, before it all had started, although Greg had hoped to achieve with his decision just that it was like before.

He, Grissom and Sara went out to a triple homicide scene. They worked there almost the whole night, but Greg and Sara did not share any conversation, that was not work-related. Their tone was polite but that was it. Greg still hoped they would be able to return to their friendly relationship after a while, when everything would be over and done with.

Early in the morning they came back to the lab. Grissom vanished into his office and Sara immediately set to process what they had brought from the scene.

She was just looking at several knifes they had found at the house where the homicides had happened, when Greg came into the room. He stopped next to a table on that several procession tools were standing.

Sara looked up to him. "Can you hand me the luminol, please?" she asked in a neutral, professional tone. Greg looked at the table next to him and took the bottle Sara had asked for. He handed it to her and then picked up an evidence bag.

He and Sara were working with their backs to each other.

He put on gloves and started to examine the clothes that were in the bag. The clothes were covered with blood and Greg looked at the different shapes the blood had made on the fabric. He leaned over the table that was in front of him and reached for a pen.

He rose again and something bumped into his back. Greg cried out and turned around.

Sara looked guilty. "Oh, sorry, Greg. I took a hasty step backwards. Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Greg nodded and turned around again, looking at the clothes in front of him. He laughed shortly. "My back has seen worse. Being pushed against lockers, sleeping-," _on your hard floor_, Greg wanted to say, but stopped in mid sentence.

He could have kicked himself.

He hoped that the both of them would forget what had happened between them, so that they could return to normal terms.

And how did he support that? By reminding Sara of everything, making her maybe even think it was just a joke for him, only because he could not keep his mouth shut.

Feeling uncomfortable he continued to examine the blood drops,and avoided turning around, so that he could not see her face. So he did not see the smile that had creped into her face, reluctantly though, but it was still there.

Sara tried to keep her voice in a neutral tone. "I get the impression you're enjoying that." She tried to catch a glimpse of Greg's expression, when he turned his head for a split second out of surprise. And what she saw she thought was bafflement.

They both continued working in silence and Sara sprayed another knife with luminoland turned to Greg. "I found the knife that was used."

"One step further," Greg returned, smiling insecurely.

* * *

Sara came into the locker room, but remained staying near the door. Greg looked up from his locker and met her gaze. He closed the locker and then returned his look at her. 

Sara's heart was pounding fast. She had to use this light moment they had. She smiled and asked, "You're up for breakfast?"

It was an easy question. There was no risk, he just had to agree. Still Sara was a little relieved when Greg nodded. "Yeah," he grinned, "Yeah, I am."

Now came the more difficult part. Sara walked towards him.

"I want this, Greg." She took his left hand into her right and squeezed it lightly, like for confirmation. She looked into his face and saw still doubt. Fearing his answer, she leaned against the locker next to her, looking downwards.

"I don't want to drive you to something you don't want," he stated seriously.

Didn't she just say that she wanted it? Sara wondered, but was glad that this was obviously his only objection. If her words were not enough to convince him, she would have to show him.

She grabbed his shoulders softly and pressed him gently against the locker behind him. "I know what I want and I know what you enjoy," she said, grinning mischievously. Slowly she moved her head towards his and placed a kiss on his lips. Greg returned it longingly and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Sara felt thoroughly happy and wondered for a moment why she had hesitated so long. It had been so easy, although it had seemed like a risk to try it again, but she was glad that she had taken it.

They stayed like that for a minute, until Sara suggested quietly, smiling, "Time to search for a better place, what do you think?"

Greg whirled her around so that now she was with her back to the lockers and Sara laughed joyfully.

* * *

Catherine heard her phone ringing. She picked it up. "Willows."

She listened to the voice on the other side of the line.

"You got them?" she exclaimed. "They were caught in the act? You will bring them in for interrogation immediately?" She stood up from her chair.

"I'll be there," she finished the phone call and hurried out of her house.

* * *

"Well, I have a day off for once and you…," Catherine smiled at her co-workers. "Okay, how did you get them?"

"We got a call that a man has been badly injured by a shooting," Warrick started. "As it seems it was an attempted homicide but the killers were disturbed as two cops were on the scene, too. They fled by car, but hit at first a border stone and then a nearby street lamp. They got off, but we were able to get a description of the car and car paint from the lamp."

Nick nodded. "And skid marks."

Warrick continued. "Trace ran the paint while Nick and I compared the skid marks to all models of cars that fit the description we had gotten."

"The results from Trace confirmed our guess and we had an accurate description for the cops. The search was on and three hours ago the two were arrested before they could commit another homicide," Nick completed the story.

Catherine smiled. "Well done, guys."

* * *

Catherine stood behind the mirror and looked into the interrogation room in which the couple, that had been arrested before they had committed another murder, had been brought into and was now interrogated.

* * *

Greg looked at Sara smiling, who looked back at him, again with a mischievous expression. They were walking along the corridor that led to the interrogation rooms and saw Catherine standing in front of one of them. She turned her head to them and looked at them suspiciously. They passed her and made their way along the corridor.

* * *

After Catherine and Nick had finished the interrogation, they went back to the break room of the lab and Catherine let herself sink on the couch. "Case solved."

Nick strode with his hand over his head. "About time."

They enjoyed some minutes of silence until Nick said, "Don't you think Greg and Sara are not telling us something?"

Catherine's expression gave a hint of a smirk and Nick added, "I mean, if you look at the past weeks…" He shrugged.

"What about asking them?" Catherine suggested.

Nick grinned. "What about confronting them?" he laughed.

"When we see them the next time," she agreed.

As they had finished their case and were already well into nightshift, they both decided to head home.

They made their way to the locker room but slowed down in their pace, when they heard Greg's voice coming out of it. They could not understand what he was saying but recognized his voice. Then there was silence.

Catherine entered the room slowly, Nick directly behind her. Catherine looked surprised at what met her eyes.

Greg and Sara were close to each other, their lips pressed together. They pulled an inch apart and Sara whispered something to Greg, unaware of the presence of the other two people in the room, until Catherine cleared her throat.

Greg and Sara turned to them, startled. Greg threw an apologizing look at Sara, who had blushed slightly to the delight of Catherine and Nick.

"So what's up here?" Nick wanted to know, chuckling.

* * *

Catherine watched Sara and Greg the next couple of days whenever she saw them. She wondered how she could have missed what was going on between them. She remembered all the smiles she had seen them exchanging, the way Sara had lightened up while working with Greg, the love that spoke out of Greg's eyes when he looked at Sara. 

Now she was seeing the couple a little way down the hallway where they teased each other playfully. It was still some time until the beginning of their shift and both disappeared into an empty room and Catherine knew that they were searching for some minutes of privacy.

* * *

"You know, we can't just disappear every few minutes at work," Sara said smiling and Greg's heart beat faster at her expression. 

He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I know. I'll have to try to get my little workaholic to go home from time to time to give me some opportunities there." He grinned, remembering the opportunity they had seized some hours ago.

Sara punched him lightly against the shoulder. "And what if that doesn't work?" she asked joking.

Greg raised his eyebrows and shrugged again.

"You won't cheat on me, will you?" Sara asked sharply, eyes narrowed.

"You don't trust me?" Greg returned in a similar sharp tone, suppressing a grin.

Sara smiled and Greg met her expression, joyful that she was happy.

"Of course I do," Sara answered and placed a kiss on his lips.

END


End file.
